I just wanted to make a quick note about a good scenario combo I discovered.

Dog eat dog world (by s.kisko; 2005 BI entry..available online download) and Howls in the Night (C.mccomb, Ravenloft). I combined these two scenarios to eliminate the werewolf cliche and moved to more of a curse and bog-hound type of approach.

I'll save you the search for Howls in the Night: Woman doesn't want to marry the baron. When baron's brother confronts woman about it, she kills him and flees into the bogs. Baron finds out about dead brother and sends his hounds after the woman. She drowns in the swamp and pulls dogs in with her, cursing the old man to have to drink from the water of the swamp and to be haunted by the dogs for eternity. Bog hounds are manifestations of mud, straw and debris that look like hounds. There is a "chief" bog hound leader usually one of the entities cursed (in this case, manifesting as the brother). The originating ghost/spirit must be put to rest (in this case, dredged from the bog, blessed and put to rest) otherwise the bog will continue to encroach on the manor house until there is nothing left and the curse is completed on the victim (the baron).

Dog eat dog world: The town of dunkelbild is overrun by dauchshounds and wolfhounds by decree of the baron. The baron has 'left' to go work in the service of the emporer (in actuality in my campaign, he is the "son" left behind..unaged by drinking the waters nearby as part of his curse..I was debating wine of dreams, but that goes way out of bounds). The PCs are hired to 'dispose' of and 'capture' hounds secretly by the "reeve" who has taken over for the baron in his supposed absence. etc. etc. etc. In the original scenario, the baron and brother were cursed by a strigany for stealing her amulet and turned into werewolves. It was just too cliche, so I'm combining both of these scenarios instead. Now I can use moons and howls and fog to my hearts content. All the while, the players will be thinking werewolves..when in fact it is a curse and a spirit that must be put to rest...

Currently, the pcs are stuck in a tree, having attracted too many hounds and not having gotten their traps set in time...and now the fog moves in beneath them....

jh

Sounds beautiful. Interesting twist of the wolf-cliche, and ghosts, wolfs and fog sure make a good atmosphere.

Neat, I admit I see gothic horror as a genre to mine for Warhammer alongside Cthulhu (I find the key elements of Witch's Song very Hammer horror gothic). The Ravenloft scenarios (some not all) and other horror ones are things of this sort. Coincidentally I was sorting them tonight and put Howls in the Night in my "keep" pile. It is pretty much Hound of the Baskervilles but I always liked the "different truths" the scenario offered.

Are you making the ghost affect all the canines in area, to explain things?

In Dog eat Dog, there is the Baron (werewolf, but absent while working for Karl Franz) and his brother (werewolf, directing the dogs to bother the Baron's son Victor to give him an amulet which he believes will lift his curse.)

In Howls', the woman refused to marry the Baron. When the baron's brother tried to stop her from fleeing, she accidently killed him. The Baron then sent his dogs after her. The dogs didn't kill her, she drowned in the swamp, but not before cursing the Baron for her predicament (there's more to it of course in the scenario..which is where it makes sense). In her spiritual angst, she has been haunting the baron. The ghosts of the hounds still haunt her and anyone who attempts to save her due to the Baron's own madness and increasing youthful incompetence and rashness on his end of the curse. No one essentially controls the bog-hounds, whereas the problem of the feral dauchshounds and wolfhounds is due to the fact that the baron has decreed that none shall be harmed (because he never wants to see her free).

My players dredged her from the muck (while being attacked by the bog-hounds) having found her using a spell of Ranald that allows one to find an object (from a drawing of her in the Study). Pure chance imho The drug her body to the 'youthful baron' and he fell over dead, ending the curse.

I made the basement of the manor very disturbing, with water and fog. The preist of ranald snuck down there himself, but got scared before going beyond the wine room (even though there's nothing down there). I played it up with the feelign that there were things crawling around in the muck in the basement, under 2 feet of water.

My commoner has decided to take his advacned career: Charlatan (witch hunter) from the hat that he recovered from the bogs where the previous witch hunter had perished. While traveling with a Grey wizard and a Priest of Ranald (who's thinking of going witch next), should continue to be a much more interesting campaign than the previous group of all combat-monkeys

jh