Coming up “Darklord Where Are They Nows?”

Duke Gundar: Aging disgracefully

Radaga and Daglan Daegon: Live (or undead) from the Crown of Souls, plus Radaga gets a new canon makeover

Nathan Timothy: On the run from his son, or what does a dad have to do get a restraining order? (Probably something Azalin can relate to)

Bakholis: (We know) who kicked the dog out?

Puncheron: A shadow of his former self

Claude Renier: Still the ultimate rat bastard?

Camille Dilisnya: Never kill and tell!

Malus Sceleris: Lifestyles of the cringe and shameless

Vecna: It’s all fun and games until...

Azalin Reviews Darklord Gabrielle Aderre

Domain: Invidia Domain Formation: 603 BC Power Level: 💀💀⚫⚫⚫ (2/5 Skulls) Sources: Realms of Terror (2e), Domains of Dread (2e), Secrets of the Dread Realms (3e), Ravenloft 3.0, The Evil Eye (2e Adventure), Ravenloft Gazetteer (3e)

Invidia is a land of manipulation, distrust, and violence. Its people are passionate and I don’t mean that in a complementary way. If anyone should think more with their heads instead of their hearts, it’s the people of Invidia, who always let their passions get in the way of common sense. It is not a rarety to see fights break out between two or more opposing forces for the smallest of insults.

Gabrielle Aderre, the current Darklord of Invidia, was not the first. That title goes to the werewolf, Baron Bakholi. Bakholi was a tyrant who ruled with brutal force and the repression of his people. He never bothered to hide the fact that he was a werewolf from his people. He named his castle, Castle Loupet… Might as well have just named it “Castle Wolf”. To be fair, many of us like to be as obvious as possible in the Domains of Dread.

Baron Bakholi ruled Invidia until 729 BC when the Mists transported Gabrielle there. Bakholi’s people captured Gabrielle who, skilled in the unique magic of the Vistani, held him in her gaze, which paralyzed him as she slit his throat with a silver dagger. She then claimed rulership over Invidia. That’s one way to start down this road and seeing as the Dark Powers never made anyone else the Darklord of Invidia, Gabrielle’s own evil was unquestioned.

What led her down this path? Well, a series of bad choices, just like the rest of us. Gabrielle grew up roaming the lands of Mists with her half-Vistana mother, Isabella. Being shunned by her own people, Isabella kept her daughter away from society and they spent their lives barely surviving in the wilds through trade and theft. This led Gabrielle to hold a deep resentment for the Vistani. Still, her mother taught her the unique magic of her people and it is said that Gabrielle is a direct descendant of Madam Eva and carries Madam Eva’s first Tarokka deck with her. Isabella, through her own Divination, warned Gabrielle that she must never bear a child. The things she most desired, a family and a home to call her own, could never be hers, for if she had them, it would only result in tragedy.

Growing up without a father, Gabrielle was naturally curious about who he was. Her mother would only refer to him as an evil tyrant, yet still Gabrielle longed to learn more. For what child does not revere their father? Perhaps Isabella should have told her more, for her loneliness and thirst for acceptance and a place to call “home” led her to obtain the information about her father in a very brutal way. Her mother was attacked by a werewolf and Gabrielle refused to help her until she told all she knew of her father. Isabella relented, saying her father was a wealthy man from Falkovnia who had enslaved her and treated her cruelly for years. She had barely escaped with her life when she was pregnant with Gabrielle. Gabrielle, always one to think with her heart, reacted in the only way she could, by denying everything her mother had said and leaving her to die slowly in the jaws of the werewolf. That’s when the Mists transported her to Invidia.

There, after killing Bakholi, the people rose up and named Gabrielle their Queen and she quickly claimed the fiery remains of Castle Loupet as her own. Gabrielle was a lax and uncaring ruler. She ignored the people’s problems in favor of lavishing herself in luxury. Her rule was one of whispers, but unlike my own, her whispers and plotting were carried out on whims and fleeting fancies. She spent her time manipulating individuals against one another and spreading rumors of the Vistani “evil” throughout Invidia. Her realm was mostly in chaos, though she still managed to convince a fair amount of people to take over a portion of Gundarak as that Domain fell.

Now, Gabrielle should have listened to her mother, but she fell head over heels for the “Gentleman Caller”, an incubus who holds great interest to me as his schemes are all designed with the ultimate goal of allowing him to escape the Mists. Gabrielle only has a vague recollection of her brief love affair with the Incubus…and never knew him to be an Incubus in any way. Their ‘union’ resulted in Gabrielle giving birth to Malocchio, a son who has an extra finger on each hand. (Perhaps this is the 6-fingered man that Inigo Montoya has been searching for?)

The extra fingers led Gabrielle to perform a Tarokka reading and discovered that Malocchio was a Dukkar or an individual destined to bring out the destruction of the Vistani. Still holding a deep resentment for her people, Gabrielle was thrilled by this information and sought to groom her son to be just that. This did not work well for Gabrielle as her son had no desire to fall under his mother’s heel. He sought to destroy her completely, but Gabrielle was saved by her one-time lover, a wolfwere from Kartakass named Matton. With his assistance, Gabrielle recuperated and soon took over the leadership of the rebels from Gundarak and took up residence in Castle Hunadora. She began her whispered campaign against her son, but it did little from stopping him from having near complete control over Invidia.

Malocchio and Gabrielle play their little games to this day, painting the landscape with blood and whispers. Malocchio is a ruthless individual, devoting his time to eradicating the Vistani whereas his mother is now far more focused on seeking revenge against her son. Though her control over Invidia is a fraction of what it once was, she has rallied people behind her and even a fair number of wolfweres from Kartakass have come to her side. She’s a powerful enchanter and uses her skills at deception, manipulation, and charm as weapons against those that would oppose her.

Her curse, interestingly, is that she cannot directly harm a Vistana. This includes her own son, so she must rely on others to do this for her. As curses go, that seems a tame one given she prefers manipulation to direct confrontation to begin with, but the Dark Powers don’t always make the wisest of decisions. Let’s see, a rather lazy ruler with more care of her own luxury than actually ruling and lost most of her Domain to her own son…I’ll give his lady a 2 simply because she’s related to Madam Eva and is clearly unwilling to give up despite all odds laid out against her.