A Ravenloft Crusade

[Five]

I'm currently in a phase in which I am creating some pretty big adventure hooks for my PCs. Some of these will no doubt end up as background material, but that's fine as it the players who will untimately choose what to bite and what to pass on. But that's not to say I can provide options, so...

Briefly:

Recently, an invitation was sent to all of the religious organisations in Ravenloft to gather and discuss their theological differences. This massive undertaking has been, for myself and my game wants, arranged by an overly ambitious and recently "returned" Mournesworth (I've touched on my basic design in another thread). Consider him a secret benefactor/investor. More on him later. But to keep this idea more accessible, this individual will furthermore be removed from the equation and be reduced to that of, say, "secret benefactor".

During the course of this highly-aggressive and ultimately disasterous debate, several delegates have agreed that more attention needs to be put into the facts and rumours surrounding the denizens and overall "condition" of Necropolis. Thus an uneasy alliance is formed, and the first seed of the "Holistic Crusade" sown.

Adventurers and other mercenary-type groups were assembled and sent to recon the site in question (captained by representatives of the churches of course). And when a ravaged group reports the general concept behind that death field (later on I'll have to dig through my books to fill in things specifically), then another plan and another wave of investigators is launched into action to disable or counteract this baffling anomaly. After several tries, success! Fast forward and we come to the present.

Large numbers of multi-national, cleric-led groups are gearing up to march on Necropolis. Other groups are preaching for recruit in practically every domain found in the Core. The plan is to send wave after wave of crusaders against Necropolis until the Evil can be purged...

And that's all I have for now. I'll flesh those ideas out, and others, when time allows (short on it right now). Any input, advice, yays, and nays, are more than welcome.

[Buzzclaw]

Since Necropolis is in Darkon, I wouldn't be surprised if Barovian and Falkovnian "mercenaries," soldiers and saboteurs backed by Strahd and Drakov joined the crusade. Of course, once they're in Darkon's borders they might suddenly disappear, sabotaging or raiding Darkonese settlements.

Also, how does Azalin feel about this?

[Five]

Since Necropolis is in Darkon, I wouldn't be surprised if Barovian and Falkovnian "mercenaries," soldiers and saboteurs backed by Strahd and Drakov joined the crusade. Of course, once they're in Darkon's borders they might suddenly disappear, sabotaging or raiding Darkonese settlements.

Also, how does Azalin feel about this?

Good question. The way I'll play it is that Azalin is both pissed and elated.

He'll be pissed because his hand will be forced. Sure (in his mind) he can meet this pesky horde of humans out in the field and blast them all into mindless nothings, but that will mean that he will have to reveal his true self. And he's too smart to anger so many with such combined spiritual powers and face their holy retribution. It's suicide (and will ruin a hell of a lot of his plans, past, present and future). That said, he will put up a token resistance which will eventually lead to him exerting his will through a treaty of sorts. In exchange for passage through his realm...that sort of thing. But he will also demand the right to punish looters (those looking to "acquisition" Darkonian resources), some sort of tithe, anything and everything that will make things appear to look like he is allowing this crusade through his land.

Also, he needs the time to prep his agents for infiltration. Which will have been started the moment the preaching begins in Darkon, but this time of "negotiations" will only help to further entrench them for intel, assassinations, and so forth.

He'll be elated for the simple fact that he can pit his intellect against spirituality (of Mankind) itself. It's a new game, and will no doubt (to him anyway) end with him lording over even that. Lambs to the slaughter, not to mention a detailed who's who of potential enemies that actually do possess the power to cause him harm (he's not that egotistical to think that the holy are completely harmless). Some will not make it out alive, and the rest subject to His will...

I'll be getting more into Azalin as the thread goes on.

[Hazgarn]

This sounds like an interesting idea. Given that an encounter with Death in Necropolis is my vague end-game for the campaign I'm currently running, I'll sit in on this, and possibly steal it.

There are probably a few different takes on Azalin's opinion. The one which occurs to me is that he isn't likely a fan of Necropolis' existence, and would probably be rather happy to see that blemish on his domain taken care of. Since he created the Eternal Order as a tool anyway, and the Order has lost a great deal of credibility since the Requiem, the Crusade might be a means of making it useful again. So, Azalin himself might be a good candidate for the Crusade's "secret benefactor".

Of course, he'd probably not be very happy about foreign involvement, but that could be the result of actions outside of his immediate control if forces elsewhere saw fit to try and worm their way in.

Since the Crusade is meant to be non-denominational, I could see the Eternal Order being the starting point, then the Ezran Zealots in Nevuchar Springs getting involved, and drawing the other sects in with them for their own various reasons, which brings secular attention to the Crusade from all over the Core (Drakov and Strahd as Buzzclaw said).

[Jimsolo]

It sounds like you have a good story set up. I'd be a little careful in dealing with Necropolis, but it seems like you have some good stuff lined up.

I'm not a huge slave to canon. If you want to make Szass Tam the Darklord of Darkon rather than Azalin, then I'm not going to cry too hard. Six of one and half a dozen of the other, and all that. I think that style and theme are far more important to preserve than canon. In that regard, I think finding a way around the death field opens up a lot of good story possibilities for you.

That being said, I think that the predominant thematic element of Necropolis is that it is a no man's land. It is not a place for the living. That isn't to say I think living people (especially players) can't wind up there, but I think the 'not for the living' theme should be preserved. I wouldn't, if it were me, just have the death field dropped.

I'd make it some kind of scenario where only limited numbers of people could go in for limited amounts of time. (I've always been of the opinion that the Grimwald's Graymantle spell should totally let a living person walk right into Necropolis and then right out again.) The people who go in have to operate not as members of a large army, but as smaller strike-teams. Perhaps they have a small number of talismans that make the wearer be treated as undead? Then the wearers could walk in, and would be operating like an undercover cell.

The other thing I would keep in mind (again, if it were me) is that there hasn't been any living people in Necropolis for a very long time. There has to be lots of ways to hammer that home. Bathrooms might be the perfect place to hide something, because who would ever go into one? There are lots of ways to highlight the fact that this is a world of the dead, and I think I would remind my PCs of that at every turn.

In any case, it sounds like a great plot line! You've got a lot you can do with that, and I hope it works out for you. Good luck, and I hope I was able to help.

[Five]

There are probably a few different takes on Azalin's opinion. The one which occurs to me is that he isn't likely a fan of Necropolis' existence, and would probably be rather happy to see that blemish on his domain taken care of. Since he created the Eternal Order as a tool anyway, and the Order has lost a great deal of credibility since the Requiem, the Crusade might be a means of making it useful again. So, Azalin himself might be a good candidate for the Crusade's "secret benefactor".

My linear plot, that is to say plot unaltered by the PC's actions, is roughly as follows:

Mournesworth. This guy is a master thief and confidence man, extremely charismatic, and as theirs is a most solemn practise his ripping people off in their greatest time of need had to be stopped. He got cut-off from the family and disowned. Pissed off, he exacted his revenge (yet to be detailed), and eventually (unknowingly) found himself back where his family had started. As the dead has always been his family's business, his knowledge on that end of things is quite staggering (it was his lack of moral decency that kept him on the outside looking in). In no time at all his schemes for running the business his own way (decades in the making) began to play out. Quickly, and through several elaborate cons, he amassed a sizable fortune, yet that wasn't enough for him. Having heard some of the rumours involving a veritable city of graves (Necropolis), this gentleman bastard has become obsessed with claiming it as his own. His dream is to both unify and monopolise the Core's burial grounds. But he's too smart to think he can do it alone. All he needs to do is find a way to get the grounds (Necropolis) cleared, and set up shop...

Enter whispers to the religious leaders, and thanks to your idea, extra (I should say preliminary and supportive) financial backing. Yeah, I'm going to take that idea and have it that Mournesworth, bold as only he can be, approached a baron in Darkon, who turned out to be a high-ranking Kargat agent. The baron reported Mournesworth's schemes to Azalin and Azalin, after some thought, gave the baron the go-ahead (along with the neccessary funds).

Crusade starts rolling.

End result, again from a linear point of view, has the crusade levelling Necropolis. Mournesworth is granted his reward and will move in to transform the city from a city of the dead to a religious mecca. Only thing is, he somehow (have still to figure out how) takes on Death's mantle. That, and burying a city of the dead comes with its own price.

The transformation is my attempt to inject a more blasphemous flavour into Ravenloft. And to have such evil beneath the very feet of Ravenloft's most holy is, I feel, darkly ironic...

[Five]

That being said, I think that the predominant thematic element of Necropolis is that it is a no man's land. It is not a place for the living. That isn't to say I think living people (especially players) can't wind up there, but I think the 'not for the living' theme should be preserved.

It will be. Most definitely. I'm just bulldozing it some. Heh.

I wouldn't, if it were me, just have the death field dropped.

I'd make it some kind of scenario where only limited numbers of people could go in for limited amounts of time. (I've always been of the opinion that the Grimwald's Graymantle spell should totally let a living person walk right into Necropolis and then right out again.) The people who go in have to operate not as members of a large army, but as smaller strike-teams. Perhaps they have a small number of talismans that make the wearer be treated as undead? Then the wearers could walk in, and would be operating like an undercover cell.

I'll admit, just dropping that death field is flaky. And I like your strike team idea. Get in, set up supplies for the next group, and get out. Next team in clears a street or two, stretches out the supply line some, then gets out. Next in...Steady flow of crusaders, but yeah, no "army". I do like the idea of a holy (martial) march, but for this setting that might not be appropriate.

Hmm. Thanks.

[Ryan Naylor]

Have a look at the first part of The Thousand Thrones (a Warhammer capaign) for some interesting ideas that might help for the Crusade itself.

[Hamiclar]

Way cool idea, Necropolis has that problem of when you cross the border you die!!! Azalin may welcome the crusade in that three months they would forget why and who they were and could have their memory changed by Azalin a perk of being the ruler of Darkon. The same people could also be met at the border of Darkon just like the Falkovian invasions in the past.

Im doing some personal research now in the era the crusades. The lands that stand out to me happened the area is Nova Vassa and Hazalin. one of the faiths two leaders dies mysteriously could be the red wizard or a new power rising. A new messiah steps forward preaching a differance in faith. I love the suble things and having the black duke as the messiah which step into the crusade. This would be slap in the face working for or crusading against the duke. Mercs would have field day not counting the nobles the church could call on! and reading accounts on Van Rictens guide to fiends. The brutalilty of these wars and imagine the duke as a high priest and also throw in magic yikes!!!

[Hazgarn]

Way cool idea, Necropolis has that problem of when you cross the border you die!!! Azalin may welcome the crusade in that three months they would forget why and who they were and could have their memory changed by Azalin a perk of being the ruler of Darkon. The same people could also be met at the border of Darkon just like the Falkovian invasions in the past.

This is why I like Azalin better as a patron of the Crusade than an opponent of it.

As for how I'd mount the crusade...

Rather than dropping the Shroud, maybe take a page from Strahd's book--literally his, the second one. The crusaders use some sort of magic to take control of undead already in Necropolis the way Strahd did Vychen. A good trick is a good trick, and Azalin's had plenty of time to get one of his underlings to reverse engineer the effect. And once Death is defeated, if the city reverts to being part of his domain again, all those crusaders will simply fall under his control, so he won't even have to worry about cleaning up the mess of a bunch of unruly holy warriors cluttering up his space.

[Ryan Naylor]

It needs to be able to pierce planar boundaries, since Necropolis and Darkon are different domains. It also won't be able to overcome Death's darklord ability to control undead, so you'd have to take it completely by surprise.

[Hazgarn]

It needs to be able to pierce planar boundaries, since Necropolis and Darkon are different domains. It also won't be able to overcome Death's darklord ability to control undead, so you'd have to take it completely by surprise.

In The War Against Azalin, Strahd used some kind of item to control Azalin's vampire general inside Darkon. Similar obstacles. And, yeah, the I, Strahd novels are grain-of-salt worthy, but the precedent exists. Though it's entirely possible there's something else I'm missing.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

When I revised the stats for lebendtod in the NS Gaz, I specifically designed them to subvert the blanket rule that undead "always" fall under certain darklords' control. I figured that letting rival necromancers or darklords use lebendtod to infiltrate the ranks of each others' minions would be more interesting than the alternative, which shoots down too many plotlines IMO. (As Meredoth is from a realm with literally hundreds of competing high-level necromancers, I justified it as him having dealt with minion-poaching rivals before.) It's another precedent, albeit a fan-generated one rather than TSR/Arthaus.

[Boris Drakov]

Seeing as Crusades often wound up becoming vast political and military conflicts between the different nations and sects involved the end result of the Crusade could be secondary to the backstabbing and conspiring for power amongst the participants?

Many Christian cities were besieged and conquered, many a battle fought with local Christian lords before the Crusaders even got to the Holy Land.

Sometimes the Crusaders for dynastic or personal reasons would fight it out amongst themselves.

As such undertakings attract the young nobles and clergymen the most, the lords of the domains they come from might ban them from entering upon it knowing full well that Azalin will at least infiltrate their ranks or even make them take his side in the matter, wilingly or unwillingly? Thus sapping the strength of their homelands and possibly setting up networks of Manchurian Candidates for Azalin in the other domains?

An espionage battle might be fought between the Kargat and the representatives of the other lords.

Cities on the way might bar their gates for the fear of unruly warriors brawling in the street and consuming their livestock and grain with no intention of paying since they are on a holy quest.

Sieges, famines and pestilences might follow and peace conferences were the weaker lords might have to accept humiliating terms in the face of superior numbers. Making them desiring for revenge?

[Epically]

The "death field" is a field of pure negative energy right? You could very easily modify a protection from negative plane spell to get groups in.