Episode 28: Spirited Away (Listeners' Choice)

The Wonderful World of Darklords

Welcome to Wonderful World of Darklords! In the spirit of Thanksgiving and of thankfulness for you, our listeners, we're presenting the domain you chose in our Listeners' Choice poll: Spirited Away. Yubaba is an excellent villain, Chihiro's parents and No-Face give us some phenomenal horror moments, and we actually see the bathhouse's borders close in the first twenty minutes of the movie...but the bathhouse feels more like a Domain of Delight than of Dread, and Yubaba doesn't have much of a backstory even in ancillary materials, so we had our work cut out for us. Topics discussed include:

• An Act of Ultimate Darkness and element of tragedy/relatability for Yubaba that plays into some themes we might not have been able to work into the domain otherwise;
• Why Zeniba and Yubaba hate each other with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, and how to play up that rivalry in a way that lends itself to more traditional D&D antics than Ghibli movies typically allow;
• How to get your PCs to seek out jobs in the bathhouse and sign their names away to Yubaba even though there's no way in the Nine Hells they're going to think it's a good idea;
• The sorts of adventures one can have in a setting that doesn't lend itself to combat, puzzle-solving, or the disarming of traps;
• and more!

The full write-up for the Bathhouse of the Spirits is available for free on DM's Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/501385/The-Bath-House-of-the-Spirits-A-Ravenloft-Domain-of-Dread?affiliate_id=241770

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

06:20 The Lord

53:02 The Land

1:09:29 Dread Possibilities

1:32:32 Parting Thoughts

2:02:12 D’s Parting Thoughts

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

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