Vangelia crested the hill and looked out at the expanse of impenetrable fog that stretched before her.

"I can't see anything beyond the fog!" She called back to her companions, Demara and Timorian. "Should we turn back?"

Demara strode up the hill to stand with the young scout. Together, they waited for Timorian, hampered somewhat by his priestly robes, as he clambered up the rise to stand with them, and stare outward at the rolling bank of white mist.

"Something's happening." He said, pointing to a place in the fog that seemed to grow thinner. A dark shape loomed behind the whiteness.

As the trio watched, the Mists parted and a strange figure emerged from its depths. Tall and angular, with vestigial wings and a hawklike, humanoid head, the creature fell forward onto the ground, bleeding from a wound in one of its sticklike legs.

"Shall we help... whatever it is?" Vangelia asked.

"It's wounded, maybe even unconscious." Demara said. "I don't think it can be much of a threat."

"We can at least go closer and investigate." Timorian said. "Who knows to what purpose it has been delivered to this place."

Most of Ravenloft's folk live and die within a score of miles from their birthplace and can spend their entire lives without ever knowingly encountering the supernatural. When combined with cultures rich in suspicion and superstition, the result is xenophobia. This is expressed as an Outcast Rating (OR), which may modify the Difficulty Classes of social skill checks performed by any character who appears unnatural or out of place.

A character's Outcast Rating can be modified by her race, social standing, physical deformities, or even the gear she carries. As a character's OR rises, NPC reactions toward her turn from standoffish to fearful.

OR applies as a circumstance penalty to Deception, Performance, and Persuasion checks, but it applies as a bonus to Intimidate checks. OR modifiers never apply when dealing with friends or allies, such as other PCs, or others who share the source of your OR modifiers, such as other members of your own race. Your OR also only counts when NPC's are aware of an individuals "otherness". A monstrous character might have an OR of 6, but this comes into play only when its true form is revealed or otherwise deals with people who know the truth.

Outcast Rating reflects only first reactions; it is possible to improve one's standing. For each good deed a character performs (stopping a crime, defeating a monster preying on the community, helping a farmer harvest crops, and so on), that individual dispels some of the surrounding community's fear; her OR drops in that community by 1 point, to a minimum of 0.

Some domains may impose their own OR modifiers. Elves are enslaved and considered property in Falkovnia, for instance. This increases their OR modifier in that land, on top of placing them in more immediate danger of imprisonment or execution.

Base Outcast Ratings for common races are listed below. The DM may assign an Outcast Rating to races not listed.

• Dhampir: Base OR +1
• Dwarf: Base OR 3
• Elf: Base OR 3
• Gnome: Base OR 1
• Half-Elf: Base OR 1
• Halfling: Base OR 1
• Hexblood: Base OR 5
• Human: Base OR 0
• Reborn: Base OR +2

For a race not listed, ask the DM if it's allowed. Orcs are almost unknown in Ravenloft, for instance, as are Dragonborn or Tieflings. When deciding on an OR rating for another race, some of the factors to consider are;

Take a Dragonborn, for example. It's a medium creature (+1) with a monstrous appearance (+3). Dragon's aren't well known in Ravenloft but it looks predatory (+2). When first witnessed, it exhaled a gout of flame from its mouth (+1). This dragonborn would begin play with a Base OR of 7 and most people are likely to flee from it on sight.