Armed with new intelligence on the bandit problem here in the north, including the whereabouts of the goblin chieftain Blackhide, the party decided to undertake a long journey southwards to resurrect the fallen Sir Hardrig. But first they had to stop off in Castle Morbis again. They met with Guard Captain Husker to inform him of their success and collect the bounty on Uli Blackeye's head and a sizable collection of bandit scalps, then retired to the Rusty Glaive for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. In the common room of the establishment, they met a familiar sight; a mysterious cloaked stranger sat in a shadowy corner of the bar. It was Spider, the Death-worshiping, undead-hunting ranger.
Spider, it turns out, was investigating rumors of vampires or other powerful undead in the vicinity, and asked for the party's help. This time, he was accompanied by a cleric of the Church of Death, Spider's pupil and cohort Storvin. Sigrid was eager to get on with resurrecting Sir Hardrig, but reluctantly agreed since she found out there were no sufficiently-high-level clerics in Castle Morbis to bring him back to life.
They headed out into the surrounding countryside, following Spider's honed tracking instincts. Soon, the ranger was able to pick up the trail and determine that the creature in question was not a vampire. The trail led them to a ramshackle hut, recently built in the woods away from prying eyes. As the party debated how best to deal with the situation ("fire" seemed to be the common vote), a familiar voice behind them asked, "What in the name of the Moon Maiden are you doing?" It was Chernyx, undead cleric/rogue and frequent ally of the party. Of course.
Spider, the man who considers undeath an insult to his god, and Chernyx, the undead, immediately began fighting. Spider threw his throwing axe at Chernyx, but it whirred past him. Chernyx responded by channeling negative energy at Spider and Storvin. The party, seeing Spider as the main aggressor and hoping to diffuse the situation, grappled Spider and Storvin, while Rikkit - in a panic - cast color spray, knocking out Storvin and stunning Monty, who immediately let go of Spider.
The party tried to convince them to break it up: "Spider, stop this! What if we help Chernyx get raised from the dead?"
"Cheating death is anathema to my god. The raised dead are no better than the undead." Sigrid, hoping to resurrect Sir Hardrig soon, immediately abandoned Spider.
"What if you died, wouldn't you want to be raised?"
"When I die, I will greet Death with joy, knowing that my life was over and my eternal death was beginning."
Chernyx, meanwhile continued channeling black energies at the two worshipers of Death.
"Chernyx, just run! We'll keep them away from you!"
"Don't you see? They are diametrically opposed to my existence. So long as they live, I shall not be safe."
"You don't need to kill them! Just disguise yourself. Go far away."
"If I kill them, I will grant their deepest desires," Chernyx said, smiling and channeling negative energy through his silver scimitar. "They live for death, and I will grant it to them. Truly, I am the greatest cleric of death."
Monty, seeing there was no other way to end this, swung his lucerne hammer in a mighty arc and destroyed Spider's head. The cleric Storvin, still blind and unconscious, was dragged into the hut. When fully awake, he was told that Spider and Chernyx killed each other, and there was nothing left to worry about.
The party returned with Chernyx to Castle Morbis, purchased a carriage and two horses, and headed south to Brackenburg, chief city of the region, in hopes of finding a sufficiently high-level priest to perform a resurrection on Sir Hardrig (whom they exhumed along the way) and a raise dead on the more well-preserved Chernyx.
After locating the primate of Brackenburg - fittingly enough a level 15 priestess of Aerina, goddess of rebirth - and procuring the necessary diamonds, Chernyx asked Kat to kill him with heal spells, "a painful death, but less harmful to the body." Chernyx was first to be raised, coughing and spluttering from the shock of it but thankful to breathe air again. Then the priestess performed the resurrection of Sir Hardrig; his body was knit back together and purged of decay, and his soul was re-bound to the mortal plane.
Sigrid, almost in tears, ran to him and told him of her love and devotion to him, asking him to marry her. Sir Hardrig, still recovering from the physical shock of resurrection and the mental shock of having been dead for over a month, yet moved by her words, told her that he needed some time to regain his former life, but that he would meet her again at Castle Morbis in three months' time. He also knighted Sigrid in recognition of her service, loyalty, and valour.
The party went on a shopping spree in Brackenburg, a major city with a fair variety of magic items. Rikkit spent most of his money on boots of levitation, which he made use of at every opportunity. Monty spent his time bareknuckle boxing for cash in seedy backalleys.
The next day, the party celebrated Zel's birthday. They began drinking early and continued through the night. Gifts were given, including fresh caviar for Cameo (a bird of high taste). Chernyx joined in the party after nightfall, celebrating his new life as well as Zel's birthday, though he left at midnight to reconnect with his church at the imperial city.
The next morning, news hit the street that a goblin horde was attacking Castle Morbis. The party headed north once again, determined to end the scourge of Blackhide.
On the road north through the Shatterwald, they began encountering peasant refugees fleeing the destruction to the north. One night, as they made camp, they were assailed by a pair of owlbears with a pack of scavenging blink dogs in tow.
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After several more days of travel, the party arrived at Castle Morbis, only to find the surrounding countryside put to the torch by goblins. Villages and croplands were all burned and Castle Morbis was left to stand alone in their midst and slowly starve as winter approached.
The party was given entrance to the keep itself and granted an audience with the castellan, a pudgy, tired-looking man who greeted the heroic party with some mixture of indifference and pessimism. They explained how they knew of Blackhide's whereabouts - the mountain known as Grothmagog in the goblin tongue, or Greypeak to the men of the Shatterwald. They asked for resources and men-at-arms to help seek out the goblin leader and crush him. The castellan explained, "I cannot spare the resources, for I need them to feed my people, nor can I spare the manpower, for I need it to defend my walls. I wish you luck, but I cannot aid you. Your intelligence, if it was even trustworthy to begin with, may be sorely out of date by now, and if I send my men out of the castle walls now they may be walking into an ambush. Go. And may the gods watch over you."
So the party set out into the mountains in search of Blackhide.
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One of the most important parts of running a sandbox campaign is making sure the actions of the party have consequences in the world. By presenting the party with intelligence on the whereabouts of Blackhide, I essentially gave them a choice: search out and kill Blackhide or go south in search of a resurrection. Since there was no sufficiently high-level cleric in Castle Morbis, searching one out would take them to Brackenburg or even the imperial city, a journey of weeks there and back. They did choose to go south, and as a result, Blackhide had the time and opportunity to attack Castle Morbis and harry the countryside.
Death is a very strange thing in D&D, specifically because of the existence of such spells as reincarnate, raise dead, and resurrection. That kind of thing can have a big impact on society in your gameworld. That is why I figured the god of death would be opposed to undead and to raise dead - it is cheating death. Once I realized I had created two DMPCs that would be diametrically opposed to each other, I knew I had to make them fight. The character motivations were central to that encounter, and that made their actions and their dialogue (all improvised) very natural.
As for actual resurrections, I firmly believe that they should be very difficult to get. Not only do you have to make sure you have the body - or a part of the body - in the correct state of preservation depending on the spell, but you have to find sufficient gold to buy a diamond of sufficient value, and you have to find a cleric of sufficient level to perform the spell. I also like the idea that being returned from the dead is physically taxing. In old editions of D&D, you had to make a save vs system shock or your soul would not survive the resurrection process. On top of that, you could only be returned from the dead a number of times equal to your original constitution score before your soul was too weak to survive another attempt. That may be going a little too far for my purposes, but I do want it to be clear that resurrection is an excruciatingly painful and uncomfortable process.
-your death-defying d20 despot
Bah. You left out the bar room brawl. Sad day for Monty.
ReplyDelete-Monty