Undead Sea Scrolls

The Undead Sea Scrolls were a short-lived yearly fan-made net-zine for the Ravenloft campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons. Running from 2001 to 2003, the first volume was written by the Kargatane fan-group, starting with the best articles rejected for various reasons from their Book of Sacrifices and then padded out with smaller articles. The second of the Undead Sea Scrolls was compiled by the budding fan-group styling themselves the Fraternity of Shadows; in the wake of the Kargatane cancelling their next planned book, the Book of Storms, the FoS took the submitted BoStorms articles and added some more of their own creation before releasing it as a whole. Finally, in 2003, the last volume of the USS was written exclusively by the Fraternity of Shadows; with the dispersal of the Kargatane fan-group, the Undead Sea Scrolls were their plans to fill in the gap left by the ending of the Books of S_ as a source for fan created Ravenloft content.

A 2004 edition never materialized; presumably, the Quoth the Raven netbook series took its place.

The Undead Sea Scrolls can be found on the Fraternity of Shadows' website, alongside their successor series. For those interested in just what each volume contains, /tg/'s got you covered.

The USS articles are predominantly for Ravenloft, but also contain some material for its spin-off setting Masque of the Red Death; articles that take place on "Gothic Earth" will be noted. Likewise, although most articles were produced for the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition ruleset, some were also produced for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. Each article's description will mention its ruleset, but if it doesn't, presume that it uses D20 mechanics.

USS 2001

Introduction: A fiction article depicting the Undead Sea Scrolls being received by a meeting of the Fraternity of Shadows. Hints of Van Rijn’s future treachery are also provided.

Faiths of the Mists: Examining in greater details the various faiths, major and minor, stated as existing in the Demiplane of Dread, with support for playing priests of them under both AD&D and D20 rulesets.

Lost Faiths of the Mists: Examining (and providing D20 domains for) assorted faiths that Ravenloft canon establishes as having once existed in the Demiplane, but now being extinct.

Fearless: A D20 item, a serum created by amoral alchemists intending to create a literal antidote to fear. It works, but there are serious (and fatal!) side-effects.

The Asylum: Details on the physical structure, history and notable denizens of a mental health institute somewhere in the Demiplane. Written under AD&D rules.

Lady Gowena: A Mordentish noblewoman who seeks to be an adventurer, but who is trapped by marriage to an abusive father. Written under D20 rules.

The Blue Lady: A Nidalian child who was murdered by her hero, the darklord Elena Faithhold, only for the Dark Powers to spare her life. When her adopted family (secretly bandits) were slain by an adventuring party led by a paladin, she became a murderous warrior, a willing servitor of the darklord Ivan Boritsi and driven to kill all paladins she encounters. Written under D20 rules.

Arlington Farm: An island of terror in the form of a cursed farm, haunted by its darklord; a mad farmer who murdered countless people, including his family, to use their remains to build scarecrows that would supposedly make his farm prosper. Instead, the angry monsters eventually murdered him and made him into a half-flesh, half-straw monster like them. Written under AD&D rules.

The Eternal Torture: An island of terror in the form of a ghost ship crewed by ghasts under the command of a ghoul lord. Written under AD&D rules.

Gustavstan: A domain ruled by two darklords, a mad baron and the ghost of his father, whose tale of corruption reads like Shakespear’s Hamlet. Written under AD&D rules.

Hibernate: An island-based domain secretly ruled by a vampire who operates the domain’s most famous brothel. Written under D20 rules.

Miseria: A miserable domain infested with incorporeal undead, secretly controlled by its barmaid, a diviner who once used her powers to live a life of abject luxury even as she secretly steered the war ruining her homeland and its neighbor for her own amusement. Written under AD&D rules.

Nueva Aragona: A cluster of domains linked under the common theme of a post-conquistadors South America. Its two domains are Resistencia, ruled by the ghost of Don Santiago de Quijada y Alvarez, and Maconda, ruled by a maledictive were-anaconda named Martin Jose Maconda. Written under AD&D rules.

Anna: A unique flesh golem, created by a grief-stricken father in an attempt to resurrect his little girl after she fell to her death. Unwittingly using werefox blood in her creation, he gave her the ability to shapeshift between human and golem forms.

Bird of Death: An AD&D horror in the form of an ethereal spirit-bird that attempts to warn humans of their impending deaths, failing due to its alien mentality.

Celtic Banshee: An incorporeal spirit born from a woman (or child) who died in childbirth, now drawn to watch others who seem destined to die as they did. Written for AD&D rules.

The Chanak: This follow-up to the Book of Sacrifices Aswang article covers a new D20 horror, undead children created by the predations of aswangs.

The Headless Mule: A D20 horror based on a Brazilian mythological beast, a shapechanging woman forced to adopt the form of a headless mule that spews ghostly blue fire from its neck-stump

Dire Omens: A D20 adventure in which the party is caught up in the machinations of a lich to steal spellbooks and other occult tomes with the aid of undead lackies.

Superstitions, or...?: A fluff article focusing on superstitions from various domains.

USS 2002

Fallen Children of Nature: A prestige class to represent corrupt druids and rangers, though technically open to any soul with wilderness skills willing to embrace the inherent taint of the Demiplane.

Scholars of Darkness: A fluff article detailing the in-universe Fraternity of Shadows, covering the organization’s history, organization, beliefs, aims and understanding of the world they live in. Comes with a prestige class to represent ranking members of the Fraternity.

Some Members Of The Fraternity Of Shadows: Details on five specific high-ranking members of the Fraternity; Dr. Dhurban Ananda (a Sri Rajian who has almost completed transposition with a rakshasa), Viktor Hazan (a professor from the Richemulot university), Gabrek Krakul (a Vorostokovian escapee who yearns to slay the domain’s darklord), Kristoff Lutemmi (scion of a cursed family loyal to the Fraternity for freeing him), and Erik van Rijn (a Gothic Earther whose yearning to achieve immortality will lead him to betray the Fraternity).

New Rules for the Redeemed: Building on the “evil being turned repentant” Redeemed kit from Champions of the Mists, this presents various ways of doing so in D20.

Peoples to Meet in the Land of Mists: The submissions to a “design a (nonstatted) NPC for Ravenloft” contest held on the SotK’s message board.

Road Kills: Assorted random encounters to spice up travelling the roads of the demiplane.

Psionics in Ravenloft: A homebrewed guide to how to use psionic rules and characters in Ravenloft D20, containing a more AD&D-inspired illithid and a Cerebremorphing template as a bonus.

Shock, Spark and Roar: An assortment of lightning and/or thunder-themed spells to spice up arcane and divine spellcasters’ lists.

The Albino: A maledictive were-winter wolf who haunts Vebrek.

Brotherhood of Contemplative Power: Details on a monastery secretly devoted to psionics tucked away in Barovia.

The Children of Wrath.: Details on a secret society in Sithicus, dedicated to slaying the tyrannical dwarven werebadger Azrael.

The Clockworkman And His Creator: Clyde Banoliér, a once-gifted clockworker driven to madness by his greatest creation; Marcel, the clockwork golem he made to be his little brother.

Have a Few Good Cats: Details on a most unusual band of benevolent non-humans; three female paka and a male trueborn werepanther, all of whom have forsaken the usual inhumanity of their breed. Also a villainous female paka with connections to the group.

Keith de Lalune: A once-benevolent Ezran anchorite who has fallen under the sway of the Kargatane.

Mary LeSat: A half-elven dhampir who uses her skills to defend vampires from mortal hunters.

Of Secret Skies and Troubled Lands: The history, organization and goals of the Celestines, a benevolent order of astrologers, and the Celestine prestige class.

Red Eye: A tie-in to the Book of Sacrifices’ Upir Lichy article, detailing Markov Niet, aka Red Eye, progenitor of that terrible strain of icy vampire-kin. Includes both AD&D and D20 profiles for Red Eye.

Traumatized Spirits: An article written from an in-universe perspective detailing six unique geists.

Yago Trevesc: The vengeful ghost of a bitter, hateful man.

Carnival: Boss Canvas Man: Several new members for the Carnival of Isolde; Knick Knack the Living Doll (ventriloquist puppet brought to life by the Twisting), Gon “The Rock” Stonesplitter (once-petrified dwarf who retains an indestructible stone skin and enhanced strength), The Pistoleer (a half-vistani member of the Skurra), and Najib al-Auni bin Mutamin (a half-elven corsair from Al Qadim who has a charming voice).

Cyprianus: A wandering bard forced to flee when the price for magical aid to enhance his lying skill finally came back to bite him.

Michel LePerdu: A former bandit driven to madness when he accidentally killed his own father, a returning soldier, during one of his raids.

The Odd Couple: A pair of obsessed lovers who are cursed to cause disaster and mayhem whenever they get too close to each other. One doesn’t know the full details, the other refuses to believe curses are real.

The Pied Piper: A boogeyman born from the soul of a man from Gothic Earth, driven by alien hungers to feast on children and commanding the allegiance of rats.

The Trickster: A gnomish con artist who uses his talents as an illusionist to fake “hauntings” for money.

The Ebon Lyre: A powerful magical musical instrument that contains the last remaining essence of a demon, driving it to try and corrupt its bearers.

Guillotine: A cursed guillotine damned when it was used to execute an innocent man. Whoever uses it to kill an innocent will be driven to madness. The cursed executioner who inadvertently created it is statted under both AD&D and D20 rules.

Karss: An island of terror dominated by a prison, inadvertently created by a mad warden of the Harmonium from Planescape.

Tsuu-Y-Teke: A D20 update to the characters and monsters of the domain first featured in the Book of Shadows.

Callista: A Venice-like domain ruled by a cursed half-Vistani from Nova Vassa, developed from his initial appearance in Children of the Night: Ghosts.

Hibernate: An update to the domain from the USS 2001.

The Hospice of Silver Light: A fluff article written from an in-verse perspective detailing one of the hospices run by the Church of Hala. Its residents are statted under AD&D rules.

Immerabt: A plague-stricken domain whose darklord refuses to allow others to succumb to death, even if that is what they’d prefer.

Incitatus: A wandering island of terror in the form of a ruined city, the legacy of its darklord’s failed attempt to protect it.

The Lost Wizard’s Tower: An island of terror that hosts but one soul; a fallen and corrupted wizard’s familiar.

The Northlands: A Scandinavian-themed domain ruled by a tyrannical jarl who hates his status, but sees no other way to defend his rule.

Olympus: A Greek-themed domain where a fallen hero is the darklord and unique monsters based on classical myth horrors rule in the guise of gods-on-earth.

Stonewall: A domain comprised of a puritan settlement from Gothic Earth, drawn to the demiplane by one sin-obsessed, bitter, puritanical harpy of a woman, who has since become a literal harpy.

Vulnara: A domain of bitter, sour-tempered, technology-preferring gnomes ruled by a sense-draining gnomic vampire.

Yatehcaa: An Amerindian themed domain that serves as home to a cursed demigod, Coyote, who seeks his missing cloak of stars and refuses to admit his guilt in the misdeeds that saw him banished here.

Adohi: A new form of evil plant monster, akin to corrupt treants. Contains D20 and AD&D stats.

Breeds of the Aswang: Another expansion to the Aswang article from the Book of Sacrifices, adding variants of the breed to the demiplane; the Allawig and the Padara. It also features a terror track for sinners who are transformed into aswang by the Dark Powers.

Cozseca: A magical hyena that can mimic voices and absorb memories by eating brains.

Heroic Birds of Prey: A D20 adaptation of the Owlmay from the Book of Shadows and the Werehawk, a benevolent avian shapeshifter intended for the Books of S_ before their cancellation.

Upir Lichy - Third Edition: A d20 update to the article from the Book of Shadows, with added notes on how they interact with their canonical analogues, the Vyrkolaka, in Vorostokov. Also features a Terror Track of the Upir Lichy.

The Van Richten Guide to the Lesser Undead: A fan-attempt at covering the role of lesser undead, such as skeletons, zombies and ghouls, in the manner of a Van Richten’s Guide. Made obsolete when the official Van Richten’s Guide to the Walking Dead was released.

All Things Small And Helpful: Assorted fey and undead creatures taken from Scandinavian folklore, mostly intended for use with the Northlands domain. They consist of the Draug (undead drowned fisherman), Deildeghast (ghost of a man who moved a boundary stone), Oskorei (swarm of ghosts who were pettily wicked in life, drunkards and vagabonds and the like), Fossegrim (waterfall-dwelling river fae), Kvernknurr (small mill-dwelling fae with enormous mouths), and Tunkall (farm-assisting fae).

Face Thief: A malevolent incorporeal undead that steals the faces of mortals, allowing it to assume their form and cursing them to become its undead slaves.

Morav: A unique undead created from the remains of a dinosaur or dire reptile.

The Demon Still Roams: A poem about a person scarred by paternal abuse.

A Statue in the Courtyard: A poem about the death by old age of a once great hero.

Azalin’s New Crowns: A gag article depicting comedic sketches of Azalin seeking replacement crowns.

Excerpts From The Register: Hand-drawn art and fluff text referencing unique and terrible spirits and other monsters found in the demiplane.

Hollow: A fiction article, wherein a warrior finds himself on the worse end of a deal with a wizard.

Monsters You Will Never See In The USS...: A gag article listing monsters that would have been too absurd even for AD&D.

Huaca de la Luna: Three European undead monsters now stalking the Gothic Andes.

Lead into Gold: The practice of alchemy on the Gothic Earth, with rules for achieving feats like elixirs of youth.

Pharaoh Akhenaton: A powerful mummy created from the infamous monotheistic pharaoh of the Gothic Earth. However, on Gothic Earth, he was a benevolent figure who sought to lead his people away from the clutches of the Red Death, a fight he continues in undeath as patron of the qabal known as the Synod of the Crimson Disk.

The Snow Mother: A once benevolent fae of the Gothic Andes, unwittingly corrupted into a monster by her own misguided worshippers.

The Whaetelys: A twisted family of black magicians and devil-worshippers lurking in the remote regions of Gothic America, inspired by Lovecraft’s famous New England horrors.

USS 2003

The Black Arts: A prestige class to reflect “evil witches”, using information from Van Richten’s Guide to the Witch as an inspirational starting point.

Demented Dreamscapes: D20 rules for probing the dreamscapes of the insane.

Hallowed Crafts: An expansion to canon lore regarding the Church of Hala, detailing its calendars, feats, rites and practices.

The Inquisition Trials: A guideline on how to effectively use the Inquisition should the party enter Tepest.

Notes on the ‘Making of’ a Campaign: A guideline to preparing a campaign set in Ravenloft.

Of Visions Induced By Coma: Framed as an in-universe article written by Dr. Illhousen, this article examines visions that can be experienced by characters who are near-death.

Ready, Aim, Fire...: An update/expansion on rules and in-universe lore surrounding firearms in the Lands of Mists.

The Shadow Curtain: Suggestions and rules for incorporating the Plane of Shadow into Ravenloft games.

Spells from Richemulot: An array of low-level arcane spells pioneered by the wererat sorcerers of Richemulot.

Weapons of Blood: An array of possible origins for enchanted weapons that better fit the Gothic Horror Fantasy motif of the demiplane of dread

Beachum’s Emporium: Details on a wide-flung mercantile emporium that spreads across the Core.

Belenus: A Tepestani driven amnesiac by the trauma of his past and adopted as a misguidedly innocent worshipper of Diamabel in Pharazia.

The Blanc & Noir: An engaged pair of famous musicians resurrected after their untimely death by two obsessed fans, turning them into dread flesh golems.

The Deception Crew: A mini-adventurer centered around a malevolent crew of slavers who deceive human cargo into willingly travelling with them, only to sell them to a hungry ghoul lady.

Erich Reinhold: A once handsome Barovian noble, now condemned to hideous undeath as a vyrkolaka.

Hags of Vallaki: A coven of witches - a human witch, a hag, and a ghost hag - who haunt the Barovian village of Vallaki, bound by a twisted mutual history.

The New Outcasts: A tie-in to the Hibernate article from the USS 2002, this presents a mercenary group founded by the Hibernate NPC Kerad Dyilf.

Dr. Phillippe Delapont: A crippled but brilliant alchemist who operates out of Richemulot, driven by personal vengeance to oppose the darklord Ivan Dilisnya of Borca.

The Ravenous: Based upon the author’s own Ravenloft campaign, this converts the notorious Falkovnian commander of Karina into a ghoul lord as punishment for his many sins.

Sisters: A fan-written biography and profiling of Semine, the malicious hag-hunting hag from Van Richten’s Guide to Witches, and her own sister Coraline.

Nzari: An AD&D rulesetted domain themed after the Congo Basin, shared between two darklords; an evil shaman trapped in a half-leopard body and a fanatical Ezraite from the Core who is determined to convert the native “heathens”, by pain, fear and death if he must.

Travelogue of the Northlands: A D20 expansion to the Northlands domain, flavored as an in-universe travelogue written by an explorer from the core.

The Vallaki Gazetteer: An assortment of people, places and things to flesh out the town of Vallaki in Barovia.

Bone Pudding: A foul undead ooze, based on a creature depicted in the Excerpts From The Register article in the USS 2002.

The Eternal: A horrific undead assassin, based on a creature depicted in the Excerpts From The Register article in the USS 2002.

New Horrors: An assortment of new monsters to be encountered in the Lands of Mists; the Inquisitor (an undead created when an evil, hateful, fanatical priest is murdered by their own abused flock), the Childsnatcher (a grotesque spider-like torments children until they commit suicide or are stolen away to become new childsnatchers), Chemical Zombie (undead created by black alchemy), Husher (voice-stealing fae goblins) and Dread Basilisk (powerful intelligent magical reptiles).

Elle: A fiction article about an encounter with an evil sorcerer and his insane ally.

Excerpts From The Register: Hand-drawn art and fluff text referencing unique and terrible spirits and other monsters found in the demiplane. Sequel to the article of the same name from the USS 2002.

The Kindred: A two-chapter short story that the author initially wrote in hopes of writing a full-fledged official Ravenloft novel one day.

Tale of a Drunken Wretch: Short fiction piece detailing an encounter with the Phantom Lover.

Captain Nemo: The history, skills and proficiencies of the famous Steampunk submersible captain as a real character in the Gothic Earth.

Gothic Kristiania: History and important figures of the Norwegian capital city adapted for existence in the Gothic Earth.

Mi Ultimo Adios: A short fiction piece involving a conversation between a prisoner in the Gothic Phillipines and the ghost of his lover, who imparts to him lore about the Red Death.

The Red Baron: The famous German flying ace of World War 1 and his fate in the Gothic Earth; a sworn servant of the Red Death in life, he now serves in undeath as a ghost piloting a spectral airplane.

Spectres of the Tower of London: A look at the famous ghosts of the Tower of London, who are all too real in the Gothic Earth.