accepting azalin's help and power checks

[Rudolf Weathermay]

My new ravenloft campaign will start near the northern borders in Darkon 2 years prior to the Grand Conjunction. My players are all members of a small village "Farkhensdracht" which is based on the village in M. Night Shyamalan movie the village. The villagers have a strange alliance with the mysterious creatures that inhabit the forest around them. Unfortunately this alliance is coming to an end and this means the ultimate end of this isolated village. My players will have to unravel the mystery about what is happening in their community and during their expedition in the wood they will encounter a whole lot of undead which are known as the eyes and ears of Azalin Rex. (of course, the darklord is sensing the strange circumstances on his borders because depending on the success of the character the village of Farkhensdracht will become a domain itself).

Just like with Van Richten, Azalin will order his zombies to join the heroes for a while to escort them to their destination. Now is my question if the heroes accept azalin his offer (even reluctant) does they have to make a power check for accepting help of creatures who are damned to serve the evil lich king for eternity?

[Vlad]

I wouldn't. Let them forge their own damnation if they do accept help. Let them suffer the awareness of what happens when they accept evil as helper. That's better roleplatying then rolling something and cursing them. Unless they do really nasty things with those undead, of course.
But let the consequence of their actions be their punishment, not a die roll (assuming they are good, that is..)

By the way, being Dutch, I had some second thoughts about the name of your village. You're from Belgium and assuming you speak Flemish/Dutch, I'm wondering if you don't find the sound of that name a bit.. laughable? For non-dutch speakers: if I translate the words of the village directly (based on the sound, not the spelling), it sounds like 'pregnancy of a pig' (is there another word in English for when it relates to pigs?)

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Remember that Azalin's lichdom is not common knowledge in the region, save perhaps as a crackpot rumor started by that weird Van Richten chap. Poor guy's obviously been hunting the undead so long, he's started seeing them everywhere.

Maybe things are different in your campaign, but for most Ravenloft games, Azalin's control of undead is explained away to the populace as a defensive thing: the undead exist and are an omnipresent threat, but the Wizard-King uses his arcane knowledge to "tame" them and thus keep them from harming Darkon's inhabitants. The fact that he can will them into existence is not something he advertises, save perhaps to other darklords who might need a reminder as to who's the big dog in the Core.

Requiring Powers checks from characters who simply comply with Azalin's demands that they accept an undead escort shouldn't be necessary ... the moreso, if it's clear they don't really have a choice. Now, if they start taking advantage of these undead -- say, siccing them on their enemies -- then that's another story: Van Richten himself probably had to make a check (fortunately passed), when he unleashed Azalin's servants on his son's Vistani kidnappers, and he had a much stronger justification for doing so than your PCs are likely to have.

[Rudolf Weathermay]

Thank you for your comments, I will not make them make a power check, just like you guys suggested.

Vlad, It can sound a bit laughable at first but you have to realise that the village itself contains a respectable amount of “pig-farmers”. Even more, there are even a few “rituals” where they sacrifice pigs (or parts of them) to satisfy the strange creatures in the wood. I also have the honnour to have very good role-players in my group who are taking the game seriously. I hate to be a DM for players who make fun of everything. Especially in a Ravenloft campaign setting in which mood is very important.

BTW: a few years ago i played a very good ravenloft session in The Netherlands. The storyteller was Benedict from Arnhem. I'm just wondering if it is you or you know him. I know there will be more ravenloft fans there but, you never know

Rotipher of the FoS, I am aware that the majority of the Darkonians don’t realise their lord is an undead abomination, they just believe he is an (evil) wizard. In normal circumstances I would not use the Eyes and Ears of Azalin, but did it because of the commotion and the posibility he will lose a small portion of his land to someone else draw his attention.

The first session will be friday next week so there is a chance I put the journals online too

[Vlad]

Well, if that's the background of your village, such a name could be reasonable yes. We do have a coevorden in the Netherlands after all. I was not your storyteller, nor do I know him.. there are more RL fans in the Netherlands I think.

Good to have good role players in your group. Foster them!

[Rudolf Weathermay]

Good to have good role players in your group. Foster them!

Lol, I do trust me. Once I was invited to play in a group a forgotten realm campaign. After 1 hour I decided to stop because the other players and DM were horrible. Making noise in dungeon and yelling things like "come on monster, we will kill you". Showing their ass' to the constable without represailles, pissing on dead enemies and having a gangrape on a female (evil) captive.

So , i know how frustrating it can be to search for good players

[HuManBing]

Now is my question if the heroes accept azalin his offer (even reluctant) does they have to make a power check for accepting help of creatures who are damned to serve the evil lich king for eternity?

It's a good question, and the answer you decide on can reflect how you like to run your game.

Is your game going to be an objective morality game? This type of game would reflect objective good and evil, with a fairly clear delineation. In this moral universe, a pc's actions are good our bad, and they cannot rationalize them through "choosing the lesser evil".

If this is going to be the moral tenor of your game, then it wouldadd to the absolute morality if you demonstrate to the pcs that accepting Azalin's help comes with moral punishment consequences.

If your game is going to be a subjective or relative morality game, then it allows for such compromises as "choosing the lesser evil" or allying with "the enemy of my enemy". In this case, the pcs could easily justify accepting the help of Azalin's mindless servitors. After all, they're not being asked to engage or abet any wrongdoing. Save the consequences for when the zombies start chasing down villagers or Talons near the border...

Ravenloft is versatile enough to support either style of play, but morality is a prickly issue with some players and as the GM you should probably be clear about this early, and then hold to it consistently. Players might feel disoriented or even worse, cheated, if you don't clarify this early on.

My personal inclination is to use the relative morality flavor in longer, more complex campaigns, and the simpler absolute morality in shorter or one-shot games. Good luck!

[Rudolf Weathermay]

Friday, we had our first session and it was great. We only did 1/3'rd of what I had in mind for the first adventure so we are looking forwarts to the next time we come together. The mood was good, everyone was about 99% of the time ingame an the tension was there. There was a lot of interaction between the PC's and everyone has his or her own agenda. One of them swallowed the sweet words and lies of one the bad guys just as a sweet candy *evil grinnik*. I confess, sometimes there was a bit of humour but not that it did any real damage on the game or mood. I went back home with a very good feeling and looking forwarts to the second session.