The Order of the Ebon Gargoyle

The primary duty of the Order of the Ebon Gargoyle consists of ferreting out and executing any member of the Kargat found in Barovia. This task lies at the heart of the Order, which serves as a visible sign of the enmity between Dark Lords of Darkon and Barovia. Members of this exclusively Barovian society, however, do not limit their prey to spies of Azalin. The Order’s members actively seek to uncover and put an end to any attempts to spy on Barovia by agents of any of the other Dark Lords. The Order also tries by their highly visible presence to remind the boyars and burgomeisters who administer law and order in Barovia of their true ruler. While normal folk rarely encounter one of the members of the Ebon Gargoyle, those engaged in suspicious or traitorous activities against Barovia have good reason to fear the Order’s attention. Recently, the Order has begun an inquisition against obvious members of the faith of the Morninglord, seeing a possible conspiracy against the Dark Lord in the church’s teachings. Many Order members believe that the Morninglord’s places of worship serve as meeting sites for a conspiracy to revive the ancient sun-based religion of Barovia,

### Joining the Order

Members of the Order of the Ebon Gargoyle belong to a powerful organization whose sheer strength and reputation keep its members from needing normal monetary income, at least within Barovia’s borders. The fact that the Order does not pay its members in gold is public knowledge. This discourages those who would wear the gargoyle armor to gain quick material wealth from joining. Instead, members of the Order simply take what they want, secure in the protection of their Dark Lord and patron.

Any class or race may petition to join the Order of the Ebon Gargoyle. The difficulty, however, lies in surviving the strenuous series of tests required for acceptance into this elite group. Merely passing the trails presents a candidate with a serious and often life-threatening challenge. Doing well and earning the attention of the higher-ups in the Order requires true brilliance or sheer dumb luck.

The nature of the tests varies depending on the recruit’s probable role in the Order. Recruits desiring to serve as soldiers or who aspire to the calling of night lord undergo their training and testing in a cave complex known as the Great Oubliette, northwest of Caste Ravenloft. Located within a mountain south of the Shadow Rift, the complex consists of a labyrinthine maze of caverns that surrounds three deep chasms. The top of the mountain holds a prison-like “barracks” for the recruits, each of whom is assigned a small room not much larger than a prison cell.

The chasms within the maze serve as arenas for gladiatorial-style combats between recruits, each of whom must survive 10 battles against other recruits. The 10% survival rate is not mentioned to recruits until they have been taken to the complex and effectively imprisoned there until they either die in battle or pass their tests and merge as seasoned fighters (and killers).

Occasionally, as a special “treat” for the trainers, strange Outlander monsters – often creatures that seem to come from the Plane of Shadow or some other place outside the Mists – are summoned from deep below the mountain and thrown into the pits to face several trainees.

A foundry and a smithy lie within the military complex. Recruits are issued no armor or weapons better than a single sword and leather armor. They are told, however, that if they wish to forge their own armor and weapons, they may do so provided they find an instructor willing to teach and do not fall behind on their military training.

Tests for arcane spellcasters take place in a town obscured by choking fog. The village, known as the Town of Forgotten Whispers, lies a little to the south of Vallaki. An individual who seeks to join the Order and demonstrates a talent for casting arcane spells finds himself teleported to this training village. No one except the trainees themselves – primarily wizards, sorcerers, and bards – lives in the village. Regular shipments of supplies (food, drink, and other necessities) are teleported in to a storehouse in the middle of the village for trainees to help themselves – and distribution of goods is not always the most equitable. Survival of the strongest and craftiest seems to form a common theme that runs through the Order’s training methods.

The students must learn their skills from the unliving inhabitants of the village, the enslaved spirts of arcane Outlander spellcasters slain by the choking fog and now trapped by the power of Barovia’s Dark Lord, who has promised them eventual release if they serve as instructors for his recruits. No one knows if any of the trapped spirits has ever been allowed to leave, but none of the ghostly tutors dares to risk the Dark Lord’s wrath. (Needless to say, most arcane spellcasters who belong to the Order of the Ebon Gargoyle acquire the Ghost Sight feat in order to succeed in their studies). The students are trapped within the town by the deadly fog, unable to leave unless they master the teleport spell and remove themselves from the town without travelling through the fog. Once a student leaves through his own magical ability, he has demonstrated his arcane skills and is considered to have passed his trail. Those who undergo this rigorous training then decide not to join the Order are hunted down and slain.

Priests who wish to ally themselves with the order must have demonstrated the ability to command or rebuke undead. Clerics of any faith who attempt to influence the undead minions of the Order occasionally find themselves forcibly “recruited” or offered an exceedingly unpleasant alternative. Training for the Order’s clerics and priests takes place in a small sinkhole called Dark Grove, formerly a druid’s grove – now blighted with evil – near the border Barovia shares with Nova Vaasa and Hazlan. Though this grove does not lend itself to worship of any single deity, it serves as an ecumenical fathering place designed to strengthen the tie with the realm’s undead. Students learn from the Order’s ranking priests the nuances of Death, Destruction, Evil, Healing, Trickery, and War domains. The choice of deity is left up to the individual cleric. Few priests of neutral or evil deities decline the invitation to join, provided they meet the simple requirement stated above. These priests usually see membership in the Order as a practical mans of advancement.

Within the grove, student-priests focus on animating and commanding undead and on mastering the relationship of healing spells to their harmful counterparts. Training ends when a student demonstrates her ability to animate and command the undead to the satisfaction of her instructor, who may require the student to put her undead minions through their paces.

Clerics who have completed their training may choose to turn down the invitation to join the Order or enter the ranks of the Ebon Gargoyle as a war priest with a thorough knowledge of how and when to command undead. While some individual do decide to leave the Order after training, they usually seem to disappear. Rumours say the members of the Order are sent to dispose of these clerics, though many believe that those who refuse to join the Order prudently change their names and assume a new identity. Priests who join the order must sacrifice someone they know (a friend or family member), offering the victim’s blood to the realm’s Dark Lord or one of his vampiric minions and animating the corpse as a “gift” to the Order’s ranking officers.

Rogues, assassins, and spies may undergo the harshest training. A covert “guild” in the Village of Barovia provides training in various stealth and assassination manoeuvres. Anyone who attempts to go public with the details of the guild’s existence is killed (usually by other trainees) and the knowledge covered up. Training lasts for up to five years and consists of a simple, yet nearly impossible task. The trainee must find a way to enter Caste Ravenloft and acquire selected mundane items from the castle’s stores. Any mistake usually results in death; there are no second chances. If any of the castle’s minions – or the Dark Lord himself – catches the trainee, the unfortunate would-be Order members meets an unpleasant demise. If another member of the Order catches a trainee either trying to break into the Castle or enroute to this goal, he may attempt to kill the student or may report him to his trainers, who have the right to sentence him to death. A character must acquire the designated items within a five-year period. When he does so, he receives an audience with Strahd (or one of his trusted minions). He must explain how he acquired the items and return them to their rightful owner. If his methods and techniques are acceptable, the trainee receives his badge of office. Otherwise, he is killed to keep his knowledge of the castle’s defences secret.

### The Duties and Organization of the Order

While most members prowl the roads within Barovia searching for signs of espionage or sabotage, a few special members train deep within the lowest dungeons of Castle Ravenloft. Here, Strahd maintains a small group of scourges whose sole purpose consists of extracting information from any Kargat spies (or other significant prisoners) delivered to the Dark Lord’s personal attention.

The Order’s hierarchy resembles that of a standard militia, with an elite group of mounted officers at the top and rank-and-file members at the bottom. Each of the officers possesses some sort of fearsome steed – a phooka, a dread nightmare, or one of Strahd’s skeletal steeds. To qualify as an officer, an Order member must be at least a 10th-level fighter and usually possesses one or more levels in at least one of the following prestige classes: assassin, blackguard, night lord, scourge, or shadowdancer. These officers form a subgroup known as the Obsidian Guardians. All are bound to the Dark Lord by a geas. The Obsidian Guardians travel throughout Barovia (and infiltrate other realms as necessary) organising the rank-and-file of the Order and ensuring that everyone within the organization knows his place and remains loyal.

Rumours circulate within the Order’s lower ranks that Strahd possesses a magical artefact that enables him to bind the wills of the Order’s officers to him in an unbreakable bond. The most popular tale describes a pen and inkwell that casts geas upon every contract or document drafted and willingly signed with it. Other rumours maintain that the armor provided by the Order contains enchantments and magics that enable the Dark Lord (or one of his trusted agents) to use the wearer as a conduit for scrying or as a target for detect thoughts. The fact that anyone who attempts to betray the Order (or leave without express permission) is caught and usually executed lends credence to these rumours.

### Badges and Weaponry

As a badge of membership, the Order of the Ebon Gargoyle uses black lacquered armor shaped to look like a gargoyle. Although these intimidating uniforms look identical, they contain varying degrees of enchantments, depending on the rank of the wearer. Standard troops of any class wear gargoyle armor that is equivalent of normal plate mail. The most common weapon of the Order’s armies is a scythe, although some members prefer greatswords, sickles, or halberds. Almost all members of the Order of the Ebon Gargoyle also keep a hand crossbow at their sides.

An officer’s armor holds magical enhancements that augment his assigned duties. The armor worn by assassins and scouts is endowed with the silent and shadow qualities to enable them to move with stealth and secrecy. Military leaders and war priests possess armor enchanted to double all damage from charge attacks made by the wearer. Arcane spellcasters of the Order learn a variant of mage armor called ebon mage armor, identical to the original spell except that it creates an illusion of the standard “gargoyle armor” so that on the rare occasions when the Order marches en masse, all members look identical and can only be recognized for what they are by what they do under battle conditions.

#### Tactics

Although the Order is not currently engaged in full scale battle, members train periodically for the eventually of war. The use of undead as shock troops is a natural tactic in a realm ruled by a vampire. More common than a full army, however, are small units of individuals that complement each other’s skills augmented by one or two undead minions under the control of the unit’s cleric.

Frequently, the Order sends in undead as shock troops, using plenty of undead fodder when it attacks. More common than a full battle force are small circles of members that complement each other’s skills combined with a number of undead minions (usually under the control of one of the cadre). Members are usually assigned to groups consisting of at least two warriors, one or more arcane or divine spellcasters, and a pair of “stealth experts.” While each group has its own leader, all members are subjects to the orders of the Obsidian Guardians. Each group receives its assignments either from one of the Guardians or from an animal courier (either a skeletal bat or a dire wolf).

### Members of Note

Several prominent individuals serve the Order in various leadership capacities. Sheriff von Zarovich serves as the General of the Ebon Gargoyles. This self-titled individual is the Dark Lord’s number one night lord and scourge. He bases himself in the Village of Barovia but often travels throughout the realm, overseeing the training efforts of the various branches of the Order and making certain that the group fulfills its purpose. The Caliban barbarian Harg, a noted scourge, heads the Oubliette. Though not specifically a member of the Order’s elite, he is considered a de facto member of the Obsidian Guardians. The wizard Lazar, a noted dreamcaster, keeps track from afar of the progress of the Order’s spellcaster trainees in the Town of Forgotten Whispers; while Zurov, a high priest of the Lawgiver, takes charge of the Order’s clerics and war priests. No one knows the true identity of the head trainer for the Order’s scouts.