Pureterre The Land of Intollerance and Passion

Discussing all things Ravenloft
Post Reply
Mistmaster
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1139
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2016 5:27 pm

Pureterre The Land of Intollerance and Passion

Post by Mistmaster »

Pureterre

Culture level: Medieval
Ecology:Full
Climate & Terrain: Temperate small hills around a river valley,beetwen the Sleeping Beast Mountains and the Sea of Sorrows
Languages:Old Dementlieuse (French) and Lamordian
Religions: Church of Ezra (L/N Sect),
Races:Human (Dementlieuse) 96%,Vistani 3% Other 1%.
Governement:Monarchy.
Ruler:King Robert IIII de Dementlieu .
Darklord:Judge Jean de Mordain
Analog: Medieval France as descripted in Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame de Paris" and the Disney Movie "the Hunchback of Notredame"

Capital City: Refuge du Roi (L/E, Standard, 28,000 in.)
Important towns:Loyalitè (L/N, standard 9,800 in), Fidelité (L/G, Standard, 9,500 in), Obeyence (N, Standard, 9,000 In)
Borders: North: Mist, West: Sea of Sorrows, South: Dementlieu, East;Lamordia.

Domain Overview
The four cities and the hills which surround them are very fertile lands, which produce prized wine, and plenty of food.
The Capital city of Refuge du Roi is a decadent, gloom and overpopulated city, while Fidelité e Loyalité are better, cleaner and more wellcoming.
Obedience is a port on the Sea of Sorrows, and a fortified city, the principal market in the kingdom, after the capital.
The Musarde River cuts the nation in two. Forest grew at the feet of the hills.


The People
Pureterriens (self-callled True Dementlieuse) are a passional, loyal lot, deeply set in a practical mentality, and fully aware of theyr place in the world;Respect for ierarchical roles is socially phrasied, and each subject is called to do her duty to the King and the Kingdom. Pureterriens despise deeply theyr traitor cousins, the Dementliuse (false Dementliuse), which dared to upset the natural order whith theyr revolution, several centuries in the past. Vistani are seen as vermins, social parasites which are only able to steal and cheat.

The Famed and the Infamous:


King Robert III de Dementlieu
(Male Adult Human, L/E, Aristocratic 2/Fighter5.)
King Robert III, a young, sharp faced man in his late teens, is the great-great-grandson of King Xavier XII, the last King of Dementlieu, beheaded by the first Council of Brilliance; his Great-Grandfather Robert I managed to escape in the northern, loyal part of the kingdom, and there he stayed.
Robert own father was the Darklord of Pureterre, until his death in a riot; Robert III is an ambitious, scheming young man, who is trying to exploit the true Darklord of the Realm to achieve his long-term goal, reconquering Dementlieu. He is not married yet, and his heir is his younger brother Hugo, who is really different from him.

Arch-anchorite of the Cathedral of our Lady of the Mist in Refuge du Roi, Claude de Mordain
(Old Human Cleric of Ezra 7 , L/G)
The elder, compassionate and righteous brother of Judge Jean de Mordain, he is the keeper of the
Great Chatedral, builded to be larger and more splendid than the orginal one at Port-a-Lucine.
He is ready to defy secular law do do what is right, and to defend the privileges Ezran church always enjoyed in the land. He saved the life of his brother mishappen child, Difformed, which he refers to as Jean-Claude, and rose him in the Chatedral.

Commander Baldouin Dieusoleil
[Adult Human L/E Antipaladin 6 (Tyrant) ]
The commander of Refuge du Roi's garrison, Baldouin is an hypocrite; he acts as a paragon of cavalry and virtue, but, in truth, he is a womanizer, a debauched and a dowry hunter.
He is also jelous of his younger brother Pierre, which is all what he pretends to be. He is infatuated with the same Vistani Girl Judge de Mordain is currently obsessed with.

Fleurdelys du Beaulac
(Young Adult Human aristocrat 1, N/E)
A beautifull, vain and vindicative young woman, Fleurdelys is sincerly in love with Commander Dieusoleil; She will use the resourse of her powerfull family to destroy every person who she percieve as a threat for her happiness.

Pierre Dieusoleil
(Young Adult Human Bard 5 C/G)
The younger, idealistic and generous brother of Commander Dieusoleil, Pierre helps the resistence against Minister de Mordain regime of terror. He is also Izmara's bethrothed.


The King of Scoundrels (N/E Adult Vistani Bard 7)
Michel Clopin is the leader of the largest tribe of Vistani who roams the vast subterranean sewer system of the capital, called the Court of Miracles.; He is ruthless and greedy, but he has a soft spot for those wrongly persecuted. He always wears a mask on his face.


The Beast of the River
(Acquatic Gargoyle Fighter 5, L/E)
Once one of the Sanctified Gargoyles which guard Our Lady of the Mist he was demolisced during his stone sleep and dropped in the Musarde; The Dark Powers revived him, twisting him in a spiteful creature; He can't sleep ouside water, and he can't fly anymore; his objective, us cruel Judge de Mordain, but the beast prey on every soldiers and priest sparing only peasants, from his fury.

Tracy, Hicks and Theodora
(Sanctified Gargoyles Bard 1 N/G, Fighter 3 C/G and Wizard 5 L/G)
They are the friends and protectors of Difformed, and the guardians of the Chatedral of Our Lady of the mists, with Tracy being an inspired and accultured poet, Hicks a life-loving brawler, while Theodora a lovely mother-figure.

Difforme the Bell-Ringer (AKA Jean-Claude de Mordain
(Young Adult Caliban Brawler 8 L/G)
The deformed son of Jean de Mordain and a Vistani woman, he was left to drown in a well, but he was saved by his uncle, as the Bell-Ringer in Our Lady of the Mists. He is astonishingly strong and nimble, with superior endurance and stamina; His father manipulated him in blind devotion to himself, but he has recently brolen this bond and has become his staunchest oppositor, along with Izmara the Vistana.

Izmara Clopin
(Vistani Young Adult Rogue 8 C/G)
The only person outside the Cathedral to look past the grotesque look of Difforme, the girl is also the King of Scoundrels beloved little sister, which comes usefull for her, down in the Court of Miracles. She is the current obsession of Minister de Mordain.

City Guard of Refuge du Roi
The City Guard of Refuge du Roi has been moldered by de Mordain in a ruthless tool for his will. 2000 Guards (Warrior 1), 20 sergeants (Warrior 3) Ten Captains (Fighter 3) Captains and Seargents are usually Evil in alignement.

The Darklord

Minister Judge Jean de Mordain

Old Medium Humanoid ( L/E Inquisitor 7/Alchemist2) (61 HP)
Speed:30
Initiative:+9 (+14 in the Palace of Justice)
Armor Class:26 (29 in the Palace of Justice) (+1 Dex, +11 Armor, +2 Deflection, +2 Natural Armor)
Space/Reach: 1 square /1 square
Combat Manouver Defense/Combat Manouver Bonus:18/+7
Str:14, Dex:12, Con:13, Int:22, Wis:18, Cha 15.
Saving Throws: Fort:+9, Ref:+6, Wil:+12
Special Qualities: Poison Resistence +2, Alchemic Advantage, Hate (+1 HR, ST and Damage against Vistani) Curse of the Darklord, Mutagene, Domain (Destruction), Stern Gaze, Detect Alignement (He detect Chaos as Evil), Solo Tactics, Discern lie, Track.
Special Attacks: Bane, Burn them All, Bombs (15), Dicoveries (Explosive Bomb), Aura of Fear. Judgement (3xday), Sinkhole of Evil.
Attack: Melee: +1 Axiomatic Unholy Longsword (+9/+4 crit 19/20 x2, Damage 1d8+3, +2d6 vs Good, 2d6 vs Chaos. + 1 Unholy Assiomatic Heavy Crossbow (+8, Ctit 19-20 x2, 1d10+1 +2d6 vs Good + 2d6 vs Chaos.)
Skills:Craft (Alchemy)(+18), Bluff (+14), Climb (+7), Intmidate (+14),Knowledge (Arcana) +15, Knowledge(Nobility) +15, Knowledge (Religion) (+12), Perception (+16), Profession (Lawyer) (+16), Profession (Torturer) (+16), Sense Motive (+16), Ride (+6), Spellcraft (+12).
Feats: Authority, Brew Potion (B), Throw Everyting (B), Craft Magic Armor and Weapons,Duck and Cover (B, Teamwork), Lookout (B, Teamwork), Greater Demoralise, Improved Demoralize, Improved Initative, Thoughtness .
Challenge Rating: 11
Proprieties: Axiomatic Unholy +1 Longsword, Axiomatic Unholy +1 Heavy Crossbow +2 Fullplate, Bull Strenght Potion (X2), Cure Moderate Wounds Potion (x3), Alchemist fire x 6.

Background:
In his youth Jean de Mordain was a paragon of virtue, dedicated to the Faith of Ezra with apassiona and a zeal imitated only by his brother Claude; Sons of a minor lord the De Mordain brothers were dedicated to the glory of Ezra and to the eradication of corruption from the Kingdom, but then they slowly started to underrstand the truth; Darkness and corruption was in the very heart of the kingdom, the heart of the King himself. King and land were one, and as the King was evil so was the land; But than, something happened; after years of vain attempt to use the law of the Kingdom to curtain the King malice, revolt errupted, and a riot ended with the king's death; Instead than pass to the King's heir, as it usually did, as the heir was a mere child, than, darkness waited; When Jean de Mordain apprhended the king's murderer he had them on trial; he found them guilty, but his brother pointed out that tyrannicide was legitimate, in Ezra's view; Jean knew it; but faced to choose beetwen divine law and secular law he choose the second, because without law, nothing has sense; he had the kingslayers drawned and quartered, and he felt satisfied hearing theyr screams; darkness had found it's new host, as de Mordain became Regent and Minister of Justice; His first order as Regent was the arrest of every Vistani in the capital; Vistani were the embodiment of vice and chaos, and he wanted them gone, until his eyes did not meet those of a fierce young Vistani named Zelda; he forced her in his bed and they concieved a son, who was born a Caliban; enraged, he killed her and tried to drown the infant; but his brother saved him and raised him in the Chatedral. Jean was behond redemption, now.


Current Sketches
Purity and Legality are an obsession for Jean, and Vistani embodies both vice and crime; in his fight against criminality, Jean de Mordain has become himself a criminal, and althought he hates Vistani, regularly he lusts for one of them. When acting following his lust, de Mordain loose all sense of proprety and morality. When Vistani are involved his sense of compassion is suppressed.
He enjoys torturing Vistani; however, every attempt to discover the Court of Miracles, theyr secret hideout, failed. The conflict beetwen what he wants to be (a paragon of virtue and purity) and what he is, (a monster full of hate) slowly have taken a toll on his sanilty, expecially when he is pursuing the object of his whish; he is obsessed by allucinations which terrorize him, everytime he is alone; plus, sincere laughting deeply upsets him, urging him to take drastic measures; however, he stay a law-abiding man, and he can't change the laws of the land, which, between other things prescripts every few months a carnival-like day, called the Feast of Fools, which causes him a lot of griviance.
The end of his regency have been postponed by the king himself, who suspects some kind of family curse befalling on the holder of Pureterran power, and is happy to leave the dirty job to de Mordain.

Combat
Usually, he has some of his mooks to do the dirty job but he is not above doing it himself

Special Abilities:

Burn them all: At will, he can start fire on burnablepbjects, as a standard action; he can also try to set a living being on fire ( DC 19 Reflex Save Negates)

Lair:
The Palace of Justice is a looming presence on the city landscape; The screams of the tortured are heard even outside it; It is a Sinkhole of Evil Rank 3 which can impose the Fear, Desperation or Rage condition. (DC 22 Will Save negates)

Closing the Border:
If someone try to cross the Pureterre's borders when they are closed, a wall of hellfire stop them, inflicting 10d6 fire/unholy damage to every creature which starts it's round up to ten feet close to the wall; The wall is sixty feet tall, and extend sixty feet under the ground; Holy water in great quantity (at least 15 Gallons) can open a gap in the wall, large enought for one medium person to pass, until the end of the next turn of the douser.; Flying Creature are targeted every round at the beginning of theyr round, until they are 1 mile away from the wal,l with Fire Ball(Caster Level Ten, Fire/unholy damage) Evil creatures with Fire immunity can cross it unhindered. Jean de Mordain can close the borders up to a week every two.

Feedback, as always, is very wellcome.
Last edited by Mistmaster on Tue Oct 24, 2017 12:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Rock of the Fraternity
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 6056
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:16 pm

Re: Pureterre The Land of Intollerance and Passion

Post by Rock of the Fraternity »

The idea of a rebel faction of Dementlieuse royalists is delicious!
But please run another spellcheck and give the work one more readthrough? ;)
Mistmaster
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 1139
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2016 5:27 pm

Re: Pureterre The Land of Intollerance and Passion

Post by Mistmaster »

Did so, Rock. Sorry, but Englishis not my mother-language.
Post Reply