Well, I improved Carric's background, and I'm working on my perceptions of the personalities of Arannis (recurring villain); Adrik; the Grand Karn of The Reborn Empire of Kael Rantir; and the High Trevar (Second-in-Command) of Kael Rantir: Karuk Chainsmaster (BBEG of this campaign arc).
Resident Murderous Psychopath
Our works are short-lived. All we have achieved will be gone in a few thousand years. Our towers will crumble, our homes will rot, and all we strive for will be worthless if none assign it value, while our deeds are forgotten. Nature is eternal. Even if all Earth's life is destroyed, the stones will endure, and they too are part of the wilds. Our works are futile, but nature has always been and will always be.
1.) The youngest son of a minor eladrin noble, Arannis showed no patience or talent for the arcane arts, so he joined the military of the emerging eladrin empire. 2.) Arannis was assigned to a group dedicated to making it easier for the eladrin to expand into the world by tampering with empires and weakening kingdoms. 3.) To work towards said goals (and indulge an ages old grudge), the eladrin group led a goblinkin strike force to an elven tribe's encampment. 4.) The eladrin forgot about the orc mercenaries, however. After the attack, the orcs, consumed by bloodlust and hatred, slaughtered the eladrin. The hobgoblins then fed the corpses to their wolves. 5.) Arannis, amazingly, doesn't blame the orcs. Rather, he blames the survivors of the attack, thinking that there had to be surviving elves who manipulated the orcs into attacking his force.
1.) Rumors have reached Arannis's ears of an elf and his allies whom the mighty Karn Nekal desires to speak with. What's more, the elf is named Carric of the Tribe of the Hunting Hawk. As this may be a threat to the imminent reconquest of the city of Cendriane, he must be neutralized. 2.) Otherwise, just serve the Fey Principality of Cendriane.
"This blade should be capable of slaying the wretched elf fairly efficiently." Arannis, after being given an enchanted longsword forged of cold iron.
1.) Known: Arannis is in love with his Queen. This could cause his own execution, and he knows this. 2.) Unknown: His ally, the mace-wielding gnoll Mognyr, is the living incarnation of Yeenoghu.
1.) Friendly: Mognyr. A constantly ravenous, hunchbacked gnoll, who's favorite food is raw Humanoid-Hit-in-the-Back-of-the-Head-With-a-Mace 2.) Friendly: Erdan Maer. An elf hunter who told the eladrin how to get to the elven camp. 3.) Unfriendly: Carric of the Tribe of the Hunting Hawk: This elf has a thirst for vengeance and a good memory for the face of the one he saw run his uncle through right before he sustained a minor head injury.
1.) The moment he realized that he couldn't cast the simplest cantrip. This meant that the only way he could avoid becoming a pariah would be to master the sword. 2.) His first kill: an elf sentry. 3.) Distracting a traveling merchant so Mognyr could murder him from behind.
This guy was created for 2 reasons: 1. Every campaign needs recurring villains; 2. I needed a villain capable of easily defeating Carric in single combat, requiring him to think through the fight.
Comments?
Resident Murderous Psychopath
Our works are short-lived. All we have achieved will be gone in a few thousand years. Our towers will crumble, our homes will rot, and all we strive for will be worthless if none assign it value, while our deeds are forgotten. Nature is eternal. Even if all Earth's life is destroyed, the stones will endure, and they too are part of the wilds. Our works are futile, but nature has always been and will always be.
1) First, there was the Troll, a harbinger of things to come. The Troll of the Black Hills, as it was known, was an unkillable beast that appeared ten year before Abbeville's Doom. Hunters and adventurers tracked the monster to its lair, time and time again, and those that survived the thing's dreadful claws swore that it had been dispatched. But no matter how many times it was dismembered, burned to ash, or dipped in acid, it always managed to appear again in a few months, to begin its rampage anew.
2) Then came the plague. A horrible rotting disease swept through the city. Some said it was a judgment from the gods, to scourge away the wicked. But when those slain by the plague arose once more from their graves, then there was talk of demons, for surely the gods would not be so cruel as this. And worse, the dead still carried the plague with them, and could spread it with a simple bite.
3) Then came the final day. A darkness fell across the city, bringing with it a cold and bitter wind that chilled the very souls of the people. The sun turned dark in the sky, and this was no natural eclipse. Then came a cacophony so loud it was heard in Coral Town, and colors became their opposites, and a flash of pure, unholy darkness seared the eyes and burned the flesh. Dark fire rained down on the city as a poisonous cloud rose into the air, taking the form of a fiery mushroom. There had been over three thousand people in Abbeville at the time. Of that, only six hundred crawled out of the wreckage.
4) The people took shelter in the temple of Amyra, which by some miracle was the only building left standing. But the ordeal was not over. Those killed in the blast of black fire rose again, and a horde of zombies now walked the streets and clustered about the temple. And the black fire caused a sickness in those which remained. The people began to despair. It was in this hour that Marcel and Angelique DuParis rallied the survivors, speaking of hope and escape and the love of the gods, for there was a secret path beneath the church that lead outside the walls of the cursed city. And so the Great Evacuation began. Six hundred people were moved through tunnels built to accommodate only a handful of beings at a time, and the Undead were kept at bay by the holy powers of the clerics. And, once outside the city, the people rejoiced, for the sun shone brightly again.
5) And so the refugees came to St. Clarice, and built new lives for themselves, and tried their hardest to forget the horrors they had seen. But within the survivors is a secret fear that the Doom may come again, to finish what it started. And the ruins of Abbeville are cursed and shunned, for no life grows there, and the sky is still dark, and the chill, bitter wind still blows, and the dead still walk.
Step 2: [FONT="Century Gothic"]Secrets Behind The Scenes[/FONT]
"Jaque! What's happening? WHAT WENT WRONG!?" "Nothing is going wrong, my dear friend. Everything is proceeding according to plan." --Donello Montaire and Jaque d'Cendres, shortly before the Blackfire erupted.
1) Abbeville's troubles, from the Troll of the Black Hills to the plague to the Blackfire Rain and the zombie horde that arose in its wake, can all be traced to Sheriff Donello Montaire and his assistant Jaque d'Cendres (The Jack of Ashes). Donello had, in his youth, attempted to create a potion that would grant him immortality. Jaque was a necromancer, and very adept at procuring unsavory artifacts.
2) Together they explored the darkest secrets of the Shadowfell. They tested litchdom formulas, secured water from the River of Life, and even captured a vampire lord to poke, prod, and experiment on. But the end result of their experiments proved to be a failure. They tested the elixir on a youth from the village, who immediately transformed into a horrible, unkillable beast that escaped from their secret lab and terrorized the countryside.
3) Donello spent ten years and a considerable fortune trying to destroy the beast, collecting a slew of relics that could destroy the undead, but nothing worked. Ultimately, Jaque suggested they secure a magical tome, the Liber Mortis Necronomicon, supposedly penned by The Raven Lord himself. If anything had the power to undo the beast, now known as The Troll of the Black Hills, that book was it. So they collected the book, which contained horrible rituals not known to man.
4) Some of the pages of the book were stolen when the book briefly came into the possession of Donello's sister, and Jaque was sent to retrieve them (see the TMB of Nicolette Montaire for information on what happened). With the book now safely in their possession and intact, they began to use the rituals within.
5) The first ritual they attempted caused the outbreak of a virulent plague. Donello, horrified, vowed never to use the book again, but Jaque insisted they try one more time. The second ritual was worse, however, and it summoned a piece of the Shadowfell itself into the heart of Abbeville. The eruption of black fire was not intended by Donello, but Jaque revealed that he had been manipulating the noble the entire time, first to get a formula that could create unkillable shock troops, and then to secure the book that would give him dominion over life and death itself. Donello attacked Jaque, who had revealed that his real name was Gerard LeVaine, and mortally wounded him. But he was unable to escape the collapsing laboratory where they had hidden their experiments, and was killed while the black fire raged.
6) Gerard, meanwhile, still clinging to life, made a pact with the vampire they had captured: if the vampire would turn Gerard into a vampire lord as well, the vampire would be loosed and could then escape the destruction being wrecked all around them. The vampire agreed, and the dark deed was performed. Once freed, however, the vampire turned on Gerard, and staked him. Paralyzed, Gerard could only watch helplessly as the vampire tore up the book he'd worked so hard to acquire and scattered the pages around the collapsing lair, then made his escape. For nearly forty years Gerard remained trapped in the ruins, until the stake in his chest rotted away and he was free once more.
7) Gerard escaped the ruins of Abbeville with only a few pages of the Liber Mortis, determined to learn what had happened in the world and begin his plans anew. He made his way to St. Clarice and refined his ideas based on what he found there. But he hungers to have the rest of the book, and hopes to dupe a group of gullible treasure seekers into collecting it for him from the ruins of the city.
Step 3: [FONT="Century Gothic"]Secrets Well Hidden[/FONT]
"Turn back! This is unholy ground, and naught but death awaits you here! Turn back! You may yet see the sun again! Turn back! Let the secrets of the dead rest in peace! This is your First, last, and only warning! TURN BACK!" --The Screaming Skull that warns away intruders, on a pole a half-mile from the city along the main road.
1) Gerard is now hiding his involvement with the Doom That Came To Abbeville, as he regards it a failure in his principle aim, which is to discredit the gods and cause people to lose faith. He wouldn't mind recreating the Doom, however...but he wants to break the churches first. And he still needs the full book, not the handful of pages he managed to save.
2) What Gerard doesn't know is that Donello's ghost still haunts Abbeville. It has managed to influence the shambling undead who infest the city into acting as its hands and has collected most of the scattered pages of the Liber Mortis and has pledged to eternally guard the book from any who would seek to abuse its power once more. It has reshaped the ruins of Abbeville into a lethal deathtrap.
3) The Troll of the Black Hills, the immortal, unkillable beast that started the whole quest in the first place, yet lives. It is currently trapped along with the Liber Mortis in the ruins of Montiare's mansion as the book's final guardian, held in check by the power of five magical relics hidden throughout the grounds. Should the relics be removed, the seal will break, and the monster will be free once more.
Step 4: [FONT="Century Gothic"]The Principal Actors Involved.[/FONT]
"HEAR ME, SONS OF ABBEVILLE! A great and terrible darkness has fallen, and all seems lost. But I stand before you today and say that the gods have not abandoned us! It is not the end of all days! The candle of hope dims in the hearts of us all. It flickers and gutters. DO NOT LET IT BE EXTINGUISHED! Fan it into a flame that will burn away the darkness on your souls! We have come through the dark fire alive, and while there is life there is hope! Will you give up, just when the dawn breaks through the clouds? Tell me nay! TELL ME NAY!" "NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" --Marcel DuParis, to the survivors of Abbeville, and their reply.
1) Marcel and Angelique DuParis, the spiritual leaders of the city, helped coordinate the survivors and lead them from the ashes of Abbeville.
2) Donello Montaire, Sheriff of Abbeville, who sought dark magics at first for immortality's sake, then to destroy the creature his quest had inflicted on the world.
3) The Troll of the Black Hills, the hideous monster Donello sought to destroy, once and for all.
4) The Jack of Ashes, the mysterious figure who provided the ritual Donello used in his folly.
Step 5: [FONT="Century Gothic"]Memories of the Survivors.[/FONT]
"No. I won't tell ye what I've seen. I can't. Go away." --Survivor to a curiosity seeker.
1) "Last sight I ever saw was the darkness, blooming up from the center of town. It was light and dark at the same time, and all the colors leeched away, until everything was black and white and gray. Then I saw no more. But the fire...I could feel the fire, falling all around me."
2) "I walked into the ally to relieve myself when the flash of black fire struck. I had been talking to DuPree...he stopped talking when the darkness passed. I went to look for him, but all that was left was a shadow, burned into the wall."
3) "We were all in the temple, crammed in like hogs, while the dead rattled the windows. I knew that this was it, that the gods had abandoned us to die, and I wasn't the only one, because someone said so to Celebrant DuParis' face. And then the Celebrant took to the altar, and he spoke...I will never forget the words he said then. It was if, for just a moment, the sun was back, as he spoke of hope. And I began to cry because I had lost faith for an instant. Never again."
Ok, time to stretch the definition of what the TMB can cover once again. I've done it of individual characters, organizations, and locations that could be considered to have a character such as cities. Now I'm applying the concept to events--specifically something I've alluded to several times before, the Doom That Came To Abbeville. I'm doing this for several reasons:
1) I'm in a writing mood tonight (as my previous posts show) so now is as good a time as any to strike on the subject while the iron is hot.
2) As I've mentioned before, when I've spoken of something more than a few times I feel that the subject needs some sort of expansion, both for your reading pleasure and so I can keep the facts straight for my game.
3) The Doom is a plot point that will be coming up soon in game, perhaps within the next few months, and I want to be ready when the party decides to explore the ruins of Abbeville.
So I hope to hear some feedback on how well this particular experiment worked.
Well, I'd say that particular experiment worked quite well.
Resident Murderous Psychopath
Our works are short-lived. All we have achieved will be gone in a few thousand years. Our towers will crumble, our homes will rot, and all we strive for will be worthless if none assign it value, while our deeds are forgotten. Nature is eternal. Even if all Earth's life is destroyed, the stones will endure, and they too are part of the wilds. Our works are futile, but nature has always been and will always be.
Experimentation is often the harbinger of great discoveries. This should be clear evidence that you can do Event TMBs, and have it work.
But that said, I have a small problem with the secrets. The writing's good, and I think that a lot of exposition is probably needed, but I guess I'd prefer to see it boiled down to: 1.The secret Gerard is keeping from the party 2. A secret that Gerard doesn't know, possibly to his detriment 3. Something else ( maybe involving the vampire?)
How you'd do that with the amount of information in that section I can't begin to suggest. It would just improve the flow of things, methinks.
Experimentation is often the harbinger of great discoveries. This should be clear evidence that you can do Event TMBs, and have it work.
But that said, I have a small problem with the secrets. The writing's good, and I think that a lot of exposition is probably needed, but I guess I'd prefer to see it boiled down to: 1.The secret Gerard is keeping from the party 2. A secret that Gerard doesn't know, possibly to his detriment 3. Something else ( maybe involving the vampire?)
How you'd do that with the amount of information in that section I can't begin to suggest. It would just improve the flow of things, methinks.
Perhaps I should do two secret sections? The piece there now is really a second, separate 5 elements section.
Good point. I'm not sure, because we're both probably feeling out the subtleties of a Event TMB.
It's almost as if you have the makings of two seperate TMBs there. The evacuation of the survivors, and the ritual sorcery that started everything. You also have 5 NPCs listed.
The more I think about it, though, I see the wisdom of doing the sections that way- the official timeline as background, and the behind the scenes elements as secrets. It seems that the relevent NPCs would have enough personal secrets already.
Thanks for humoring my concerns, but I think you're right to do it like that.
well, the reason there are so many NPCs is that events tend to feature several stand-out faces. I think it might work best if the "Behind The Scenes" section replaced the "Goals" section, since an event is a moment in time. That way the first set of five points can serve as a timeline.
And hey, how about the idea of Necrotic Nukes? Good? Bad? I had the idea for a long, long while...
And hey, how about the idea of Necrotic Nukes? Good? Bad? I had the idea for a long, long while...
Well, *steals idea*, the sorcerers under Karuk's command have a new last-effort plan now:evillaugh . (Raw wild magic would probably be more appropriate for the hobgoblin sorcerers, however.)
Resident Murderous Psychopath
Our works are short-lived. All we have achieved will be gone in a few thousand years. Our towers will crumble, our homes will rot, and all we strive for will be worthless if none assign it value, while our deeds are forgotten. Nature is eternal. Even if all Earth's life is destroyed, the stones will endure, and they too are part of the wilds. Our works are futile, but nature has always been and will always be.
