Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords: Book Club of Dread! No, if you're not a patron, you didn't miss Book One; it's a Patreon exclusive. We talk about the rules of the Nightmare Land so much that we couldn't paywall them in good conscience, though, so we're making the second, rules-focused book of the 1995 Ravenloft Nightmare Lands boxed set free for everyone. The Nightmare Lands has a lot of legitimately cool ideas and some creepy, evocative settings and NPCs, but it's also an attempt to cludge together freeform indie ideas with second edition D&D mechanics. Topics discussed include:

• The five Disney/Pixar PCs we're going to subject to the torments of the Nightmare Court, complete with classes, levels, and alignments, and which one of them strides through the land of dreams like a goddess;
• How to make peace with your inner demons by gaining enough mental fortitude points to attain your inner peace number (hint: it's second edition, so it's through combat);
• Tom's on-mic meltdown at the way experience points were handled in the nineties;
• So, so many charts;
• And more!

Our beverage is Nightmare on Bourbon Street, or Nightmare on Martinelli Street for a mocktail option. You can find the recipe here: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/nightmare-on-bourbon-street/ We used the same regular non-alcoholic sparkling cider that we give our kids on New Year's Eve, and it was absolutely delicious, so we can 100% vouch for this whether you add a shot of bourbon or not.

REMINDER: Our fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Bank is still live! https://give.capitalareafoodbank.org/wonderfulworldofdarklords

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction

15:53 Meet the adventuring party!

29:40 General dreamscape rules

35:17 Madness rules

43:01 Inner strength and mental fortitude

1:15:20 Dream powers

1:43:12 Geography of the Nightmare Lands

1:59:49 Dream powers of the Nightmare Court

2:22:34 Dr. Illhousen's clinic

All music recordings are in the public domain (mark 1.0) and are licensed through https://musopen.org:

Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra

The Wonderful World of Darklords logo was designed by Halite Jones, whom you can find on Tumblr and Instagram: https://www.tumblr.com/halite-draw and http://www.instagram.com/insta_halite

Contact us on:

Gmail: wonderfulworldofdarklords@gmail.com

Facebook: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Tumblr: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Youtube: @wonderfulworldofdarklord

Hello, dear listeners! Our fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Bank is LIVE! https://give.capitalareafoodbank.org/wonderfulworldofdarklords

If you'd rather support your own local food bank, that's wonderful! Send us a screenshot of the receipt at wonderfulworldofdarklords@gmail.com and we'll count it toward our goal.

When we did our survey for what goals you'd like us to set for the fundraiser, there wasn't a single clear winner, but the great thing is that the four top vote-getters are all pretty easy things that can happen in installments. So here's what's going to happen!

• Unless no one donates at all, AMAs are happening. Everyone who donates gets to ask questions; just let us know if you want us to field them stoned or sober. Email us, contact on our various socials, leave it on the donation page as a comment, whatever.
• At $100, we'll do a Book Club of Dread for a single Hot Blood anthology.
• At $200, we'll also do a minisode for a single horror movie.
• At $300, we'll also stream an hour or two of playing Strahd's Possession or Stone Prophet. (We want to do two, but who even knows if the kids will allow us two hours of uninterrupted time.)
• At $400, we'll also do a Book Club of Dread for a second Hot Blood anthology. (Please get us to $400, guys. Rachel really wants to talk about Hotter Blood, which is the best book in the series, but obviously we also have to talk about one that's gonzo, not good.)
• At $500, we'll also do a minisode for a second horror movie.
• At $600, we'll stream another hour or two.
• If we get past our fundraising goal, we'll just keep this cycle going!

Thank you so much for your generosity, and happy gaming! https://give.capitalareafoodbank.org/wonderfulworldofdarklords

In which D has a case of mistaken identity, gets answers to a long-standing question, and finally has a decent night's sleep. The in-character fiction from the episode without the in-depth out-of-character discussion of the domain.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

1:49 The Lord

5:17 The Land

10:42 Dread Possibilities

15:25 Parting Thoughts

Content Advisory for D's Journal (details on content advisories can be found on Facebook, Tumblr, and Patreon)

Mind control (major), corpses (major), death (moderate)

All music recordings are in the public domain (mark 1.0) and are licensed through https://musopen.org:

Chopin Nocturne in B-Flat Minor, Op. 9 No.1 (main theme), performed by Eduardo Vinuela

Chopin Etude Op. 25, No. 12 in C Minor: “Ocean” (darklord theme), performed by Edward Neeman

Chopin Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55 No. 1 (land theme), performed by Luke Faulkner

Rachmaninoff Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3 - 2. Prélude in C sharp minor (Dread Possibilities), performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Chopin Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 (parting thoughts), performed by Luke Faulkner

Wagner Siegfried, WWV 86C - Funeral March, Finale (postscript), performed by the United States Marine Band

Dialog for Yensid was written by Azalin Rex himself: http://www.tumblr.com/darklordazalin

The Wonderful World of Darklords logo was designed by Halite Jones, whom you can find on Tumblr and Instagram: https://www.tumblr.com/halite-jones and http://www.instagram.com/insta_halite

Contact us on:

Gmail: wonderfulworldofdarklords@gmail.com

Facebook: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Tumblr: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Patreon: www.patreon.com/WonderfulWorldofDarklords

YouTube: @wonderfulworldofdarklord

Hello, dear listeners! Our charity fundraiser this year is a bit time sensitive, so Rachel is getting the announcement out in the forty-five seconds before our youngest comes home, terrible sound quality be darned. Details here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wonderful-world-140996564?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

TL;DR We're raising money for the Capital Area Food Bank (or your local food pantry) to provide some relief to furloughed workers, and we want to open that as soon as possible, which means we need to know what rewards you'd like to see if we hit our fundraising goals. You can vote for more than one thing; we're gauging interest, not setting something in stone.

Thank you for listening, thank you in advance for your generosity, and happy gaming!

In which D doesn't get shot at, subjected to anti-human racial slurs, captured, robbed of her magic, tortured, thrown off a building, mind-erased, or killed, which automatically makes DunBroch her favorite domain of 2025. D chooses the bear! The in-character fiction from the episode without the in-depth out-of-character discussion of the domain.

Content Advisory for D's Journal (details on content advisories can be found on Facebook, Tumblr, and Patreon)

Death (minor), body horror (transformation; minor)

All music recordings are in the public domain (mark 1.0) and are licensed through https://musopen.org:

Chopin Nocturne in B-Flat Minor, Op. 9 No.1 (main theme), performed by Eduardo Vinuela

Chopin Etude Op. 25, No. 12 in C Minor: “Ocean” (darklord theme), performed by Edward Neeman

Chopin Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55 No. 1 (land theme), performed by Luke Faulkner

Rachmaninoff Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3 - 2. Prélude in C sharp minor (Dread Possibilities), performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Chopin Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 (parting thoughts), performed by Luke Faulkner

Dialog for Yensid was written by Azalin Rex himself: http://www.tumblr.com/darklordazalin

The Wonderful World of Darklords logo was designed by Halite Jones, whom you can find on Tumblr and Instagram: https://www.tumblr.com/halite-jones and http://www.instagram.com/insta_halite

Contact us on:

Gmail: wonderfulworldofdarklords@gmail.com

Facebook: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Tumblr: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Patreon: www.patreon.com/WonderfulWorldofDarklords

YouTube: @wonderfulworldofdarklord

Note: This letter takes place immediately after the Owl House episode, so please make sure to listen to that one first.

In which D has the warlock equivalent of a salary negotiation, making all of us deeply grateful that Azalin isn't our supervisor.

Content Advisory (details on content advisories can be found on Facebook, Tumblr, and Patreon)

Abusive relationship subtext (major; eggshell walking, trauma bonding), corpses (major), torture (major), vomit (moderate). If you struggled with D's emotional distress in the Thanos episode...you might just need to skip this one.

All music recordings are in the public domain (mark 1.0) and are licensed through https://musopen.org:

Granados Twelve Spanish Dances, Op. 37, II. - Oriental (main theme), performed by Monica Alianello (public domain mark 1.0)

Bach Passacaglia in C Minor BWV 582 (Azalin's theme), performed by Nicholas Danby (public domain mark 1.0)

Dialog for Yensid was written by Azalin Rex himself: http://www.tumblr.com/darklordazalin

The Wonderful World of Darklords logo was designed by Halite Jones, whom you can find on Tumblr and Instagram: https://www.tumblr.com/halite-jones and http://www.instagram.com/insta_halite

Contact us on:

Gmail: wonderfulworldofdarklords@gmail.com

Facebook: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Tumblr: @wonderfulworldofdarklords

Patreon: www.patreon.com/WonderfulWorldofDarklords

YouTube: @wonderfulworldofdarklord