Might I suggest you fire up Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet’s score for Dracula for this week’s posts? We’re going to Ravenloft, so it is most appropriate.

Today we have I10: Ravenloft II: The House of Gryphon Hill, the sequel to the classic module I6: Ravenloft. Despite the fact that Tracy and Laura Hickman are credited with writing the adventure, they had departed TSR by this time – the module was actually written by TSR staff, in sections, and completed just before deadline. It shows.

Reviewers at the time showered praise on Gryphon Hill, but I have read the damn thing several times and have never been able to really grok its ins and outs. It retains the original scenario’s random elements and involves two Strahd’s – a good one and an evil one – in some sort of alternate reality from the first scenario, forcing him into the role of not just Dracula, but also Drs. Frankenstein and Jekyll as well. The good Strahd is an alchemist who has developed an artifact called the Apparatus, which can switch personalities between bodies. So, over the course of the game, evil Strahd’s minions come to be hiding in the bodies of innocent townspeople. To defeat evil Strahd, you have to convince good Strahd to sacrifice himself.  I think. Like I said, this isn’t the clearest of mods.

Making matters more complicated, you can run I6 concurrently with I10, just in case you want to have three Strahds to keep straight. All told, Gryphon Hill seems like what it might be like to watch several Hammer films simultaneously.

Still, Gryphon Hill is the zero point for the Ravenloft campaign setting. The continental European vibe is there, as well as many familiar names – Mordent, d’Honaire, Weathermay. An important personage makes his first appearance here as well: Azalin the lich, who is a reluctant henchman of evil Strahd here, a point that will form the basis of their rivalry in the metastory of the Ravenloft campaign setting.