Act 0

Act 0: Evil Toils Long Into the Night

Act 0 Accomplishes

Establish the conflict's (Grindelwald vs. the wizarding world) origin, often building over many years. Revealed only in flashbacks or brief explainers because this part is boring.

Determine in Character Creation how the hero came to occupy their spot in the world when the plot begins? A lot has already happened in the setting.

This is the first five minutes of a TV show, always briefly summarized.

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[1]

Act 0 Timeline

Ancient History

Before even getting your players together, there are a few background things I’d like to cover. While the printed book gives you a fair amount to work with, I found the general outline/goal for the entire story to be a bit lacking. So here’s some general info you should know before getting started.[2]

The Demiplanes of Dread

Once upon a time, there was an entire dimension called the Core as big and wondrous as Faerun. But, over the course of time, this dimension was split into a multitude of small, isolated dimensions. Demiplanes, to be more precise. Barovia is one of these demiplanes.[3]

Click here for a nice map of the Core, complete with misty borders. Barovia is near the middle bottom.[4]

[5]

The Dark Powers

Why did the big dimension get split up? Because of the Dark Powers.[6]

The Dark Powers are essentially a pantheon of old, dark gods. They’re very powerful, usually sinister beings.[7]

Each demiplane has a ruling Dark Power. That god basically owns that particular mini world. However, these gods cannot actually own a plane just by wanting it. Instead, they choose a champion amongst mortals and form a sort of pact with them. That mortal becomes the Dark Power’s anchor to that particular demiplane.[8]

The Dark Powers are always at war with one another, essentially fighting for real estate. It’s possible for one Dark Power to supplant another as ruler of a particular demiplane, provided they too have a chosen champion in that plane.[9]

In CoS, the Dark Power that rules over Barovia is named Vampyr (original, I know), and it is currently trapped within a vestige at the Amber Temple. Strahd is Vampyr’s chosen champion to rule over Barovia, therefore giving Vampyr dominion over this demiplane.[10]

1897: Newt Scamander born

Mother bred hippogriffs (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)

1898: Grindelwald begins

Grindelwald expelled from Durmstrang at age 16

1899: Grindelwald and Dumbledore's stormy relationship

Dumbledore and Grindelwald fall in love, duel at age 17 at Dumbledore’s hometown, Godric’s Hollow

Dumbledore’s sister Ariana killed

Dumbledore’s brother, Aberforth, almost killed

Grindelwald steals Elder Wand from European wand maker Gregorovitch

Grindelwald builds Nurmengard fortress and prison (Voldemort only person ever known to have broken in)

Grindelwald has been at Nurmengard, somewhere in Europe or North America, laboring long into the night to reclaim the Deathly Hallows.

Has Elder Wand, suspects Dumbledore of Invisibility Cloak, unsure of the resurrection Stone

1912-ish

Newt Scamander kicked out of Hogwarts for unknown reason. (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)

1915

Newt Scamander begins working at Ministry of Magic's Department of Regulation & Control of Magical Creatures, Office of House Elf Relocation (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)

==== 1917 ==== Age 20 when Mitsuko Ellen Takagawa enrolls at Ilvermorny. Promoted from Department of Regulation & Control of Magical Creatures, Office of House Elf Relocation to Beast Division. Detached to Dragon Research & Restraint Bureau on the eastern front of World War 1 (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary).

World War 1 ends in November.

1917: Party arrives to Ilvermorny

Ellen Takagawa arrives from Canada to matriculate at Ilvermorny as a Thunderbird

1917: Prelude Session: Snakewood Wandwood

Ilvermorny Inner Courtyard, Spring, Introductory Tour

Eulalie Hicks says: “…It was there that President Elizabeth McGilliguddy presided over the infamous ‘Country or Kind?’ debate of 1777. Thousands of witches and wizards from all over America descended upon MACUSA to attend this extraordinary meeting, for which the Great Meeting Chamber had to be magically enlarged. The issue for discussion was: did the magical community owe their highest allegiance to the country in which they had made their homes, or to the global underground wizarding community? Were they morally obliged to join American No-Majs in their fight for liberation from the British Muggles? Or was this, simply put, not their fight?”

“The arguments for and against intervention were protracted and the fight became vicious. Pro-interventionists argued that they might be able to save lives; anti-interventionists that wizards risked their own security by revealing themselves in battle. Messengers were sent to the Ministry of Magic in London to ask whether they intended to fight. A four-word message returned: ‘Sitting this one out.’ McGilliguddy’s famous response was even shorter: ‘Mind you do.’

“While officially the American witches and wizards did not engage in battle…

1917: Prelude Session: Sorting Ceremony and Uniforms

There are four houses at Ilvermorny: Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird and Pukwudgie. When a student starts their education at Ilvermorny, they step onto a Gordian Knot on the floor in the centre of the entrance hallwith large wooden statues of the mascots for the four houses facing them. The carved statues react if they want the student in their house. The older students watch in silence from a circular balcony on a floor above them as the new students are sorted. The carvings react in different ways: the crystal in the Horned Serpent carving's forehead glows, the Wampus carving roars, the Thunderbird carving beats its wings, and the Pukwudgie carving raises its arrow.

However, sometimes more than one carving will try to select the same student and so the student is then able to choose the house they prefer. This happens very rarely. Sometimes— as rare as once a decade or even a generation as in the case of one student — a student will be selected by every house.

The robes of Ilvermorny are blue and cranberry. The colours honour Isolt and James: blue because it was Isolt's favourite colour and because she had wished to be in Ravenclaw house as a child; cranberry in honour of James's love of cranberry pie. All Ilvermony students' robes are fastened by a gold Gordian Knot, in memory of the brooch Isolt found in the ruins of the original Ilvermorny cottage.

1917: Prelude Session: Pukwudgie and Wampus

A number of Pukwudgies continue to work at the school into present day, all grumbling, all of them insisting that they have no wish to remain there and yet all of them mysteriously present year after year. A single, enormous Wampus pads around campus silently from time to time as well, mostly sleeps by the fire and looks irritable at the cold.

There is one particularly aged creature who answers to the name of ‘William’. He laughs at the idea that he is the original William who saved Isolt and James’s lives, rightly pointing out that the first William would be over 300 years old had he survived. However, nobody has ever found out exactly how long Pukwudgies live.

William refuses to let anybody else polish the marble statue of Isolt at the entrance of the school, and on the anniversary of her death every year he may be seen laying mayflowers on her tomb, something that puts him in a particularly bad temper when Ellen mentions it.

1918: Newt Scamander commissioned to write manuscript of Fantastic Beasts

1922: Grindelwald's Murderous Ascent

Grindelwald begins horrific string of Muggle murders across Europe

   * Becomes Wizarding world’s most wanted man

   * Ministry of Magic and MaCUSA create Auror task force to hunt Grindelwald, including Theseus Scamander (eventual World War II hero) and Percival Graves

1924: Party graduates from Ilvermorny

Ellen Takagawa graduates from Ilvermorny

1925: Grindelwald escapes to America

Grindelwald steals Percival Graves’s identity and fingertips to use MaCUSA to search for Obscurials and useful magical beasts

1926: Fantastic Beast & Where To Find Them

1926: Newt Scamander age 29, the events of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie. (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)

...later events probably beyond the scope of our campaign.

1947: Age 50. Helped create Werewolf Registry, founded Werewolf Capture Unit. (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)

1965: Age 68. Helps create & pass the Ban on Experimental Breeding. (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)

1979: Age 82. Awarded Order of Merlin. (Fantastic Beasts Bestiary)