My first post! (but no really, a Burning Peaks Concept)

[Dark Angel]

So in my long-term campaign, one of my players (good guy, good player) has worked his way from 1st level Barovian priest to the 9th level head priest lich of the newly conceived "Purifier" Morninglord sect, which is a very long story. They are currently adrift in the Sea of Sorrows and can literally be taken anywhere. This is when I decided to take the group into the Vecna Reborn adventure and flesh it out a bit more with this player (we will refer to his character, Jova) gathering a significant following in Tovag (as it has no real faith and he will see the suffering as an opportunity to "spread the faith"). He is not really evil in any overt Drakov way (the non-HuMan Bing variant) but in a more sinister controlling way. He believes all will fall to the path of the Morninglord and those who don't will burn. My plan was for the adventure completion, but maybe have the group fail in the final objective which releases Vecna (not 100% on that yet as I just ordered Die Vecna Die and have not read it yet). I was planning on making Haroln the next lord of Cavitus under the pretense of being the more opportunistic lord. However, I am debating whether Vecna would just leave the Demiplane straightaway or take his thumb and smash Kas to nothingness first. I even am kicking around the idea of Vecna taking Kas and transfiguring him into the thing he desires the most. Either trapping him in the actual sword of Kas or a replica, but without the ability to act on his own. Still working on that.

Anyway, the final goal will be the removal of Kas (maybe by the players themselves) and the breakdown of order in Tovag. This is where Jova will step up and stop the military carnage and slaughter of innocents (which he may take a protective stance over if they fall to their knees for their new god). Eventually the forces of Cavitus (under Haroln) will march east to finally remove "defenseless" Tovag and solidify his rule. The plan is to set Jova up to lead the charge against the armies of the dead and having him be able to call upon his divine favor to create a wall of unholy fire (or something similar). Little by little, he will eventually discover that he is in fact the new lord of Tovag and I find the reversal funny. Where a lich-lord fought against a vampire-lord now has the same in the opposite nations. We now have removed the grudge match between Vecna and Kas and have turned it into a unholy war as the armies of the clerics of Vecna will be removing the usurpers of the false god known as the Purifier. Good times and we get to keep the Burning Peaks.

[Deewun]

I love the Burning Peaks, always have. And I think this is an incredible idea, especially as a way to work in the modules AND keep the domains around. I'm in favor, and wish I had more I could offer. I look forward to seeing what else happens with Jova and the rest.

[Dark Angel]

There is the problem. The "rest" of the group are three others that actually kind of formed around Jova. The one is the runaway would be bride of the darklord of Valachan (see Dungeon magazine #50 adventure) and a independent minded magic user. She is the sister of Jova's old ally (turned vampire and then destroyed). Another is a ranger from Tempest who is learning to trust different races, but was rescued from a hag-run bandit group by Jova. The third is a young boy whose uncle died in Barovia and was rescued by Jova and trained to be a fighter. While all of these people were close with Jova, the fact that he spiraled into evil so quickly and "died" (having consumed a wish granted potion of lichdom, Jova appeared dead and was buried). They just recently got back together and are dealing with the undeath. Even though Jova's player is not going to harm them and has them under "protection", they are likely not going to be comfortable with the lich. Granted in Tovag, that will likely change.

Jova's player is surprised that I have not taken his pc away (upon lichdom) as that is the usual practice. So his (hopefully) eventual fall to darklordship and full realization of his actions will be worth it. He was also a boy scout for the first 8 levels so his "new outlook" has been most rewarding for me. Besides, he may enjoy the darklordship as his pc is now (and for now) immortalized in my Ravenloft canon.

[Joël of the FoS]

You could also add some elements of Die Vecna Die in it, some parts are over the top, but some parts are fun, challenging and deadly

Joël

[Dark Angel]

Just got Die Vecna Die yesterday and only had a minute to peruse it. I like taking the final Cavitus encounters from it and intermingling it into the Vecna Reborn mix. Might avoid the Sigil aspects (don't want them to jump ship before it gets good) and will take a lot of the materials and flesh out Tovag and Cavitus as much as possible, one of my players will be living there pretty soon! Does anyone have thoughts on substituting Iuz for something more Demiplane appropriate? I know Kas is the first go to, but I see Vecna really screwing with him on a much grander scale and

VIEW CONTENT:

not as a stepping stone for godhood. I have the time to introduce something, but with a high powered npc out there, I would want something with a bit more substance and meaning than here is a godlike creature...Now Vecna ate him, the end.

Any thoughts?

[The Giamarga]

No specific input, except that Nathan played a PC from Tovag in Deepshadows' Epic PbP campaign. He developed some rather interesting tidbits of lore there. It is buried in the Cafe de nuit subforum and on another message board though.

Peregrine's Memories 1
Peregrine's Memories 2
Peregrine Wayfarer

[Dark Angel]

Good times, I was entertaining a rival religious sect to arrive in Tovag as their "world" unravels around them. Jova never cared for Ezra (some rough times previously in Borca), but I did not want him thrust against a good faith's followers. However, the Darkonian Ezra sect would be a good push into the direction that Tovag is his territory (further entrenching his potential lordship). I am going to go through the Vecna Adventures and those posts and take any and all inspiration I can get to really flesh the nation out. Thanks, Giamarga!

[Dark Angel]

Since I am not using Iuz the Old (for a variety of reasons), I feel sacrificing a member of my newly solidified pantheons is too extreme and would not have enough "umppf" for my campaign. I thought about fiends (powerful, potential leaders, Dark Powers defying powers) and if he is already in the Demiplane, who better to want to take Vecna's bait for escape? Also the group has had dealings with this particular fiend and the OMG factor should be much higher. I may post a rough layout for the melding of Vecna Reborn and Die, Vecna, Die, but (like many here) I fear my players may begin looking for its and bits. Though they now know I am on a Ravenloft forum, they do not know which one. They would be able to figure I am the Dark Angel. I don't know, we will see.

[Deewun]

Hopefully your players wouldn't just come in and ruin their own game by learning all the details here.

Who is this fiend you have used?

[Dark Angel]

For my group, there is only one I would worry about. He is the one who checked out Mistipedia (no problem there), but I warned him that I have changed things and anything his pc would not be aware of, stands.

As far as the fiend, that is where it gets tricky...

I popped open Van Richten's guide to fiends and looked through them all to see who fits best. I was finally settled on the Black Duke or even Inajira. Very smart and manipulative and likely to have a retinue under them, but with the Black Duke (who has a few adventures and a role in the Guild of the White Pigeon) and Inajira (who I love too much to sacrifice and just chaps Strahd's butt) are too good to just put on the block with the players not even caring who they are. So an almost after thought was a personal creation who was trapped in Ravenloft and has been trying to get out since. The players know him and have even worked amicably with him in the past. Well, until he tried to sacrifice them in the Rift Spanner. So now he will be a powerful creature who can control a group and has powerful magical abilities that will get him far in Cavitius. If anyone really wants, I could post this guy. He is known (in the common tongues) as the Dark Angel. Yeah, I know there is a reason why I like him so much!

[Epically]

This is a dumb question; but where is Tovag?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Tovag is Kas the Destroyer's domain. Together with Cavitius (Vecna's domain) it forms the Burning Peaks cluster, off in the Mists.

[Dark Angel]

Tovag and Cavitius are both still in the Burning Peaks, but they lie in northwest Sea of Sorrows. I recently revamped my map with all domains physically reachable (maybe not easily, but able) except for the Nightmare lands. I (hopefully) enclosed a map of my campaign setting that will be somewhat readable. One of my players would look at the map, see Vechor in the upper right and inquire about it. I looked at him and said, "Take a wagon ride to the coast, take a ship, and pray to whoever that you make it there in less than a year."

He did not care for that answer.

And my map is too big and I don't want to dumb down the resolution so it would be totally unreadable. Any suggestions on that one?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

You can post it on mistipedia. It should auto-scale to a thumbnail...

[Dark Angel]

You can post it on mistipedia. It should auto-scale to a thumbnail...

But would I lose detail? This is a 2000 x 2500 size image of a 2' x 3' poster. I can zoom in on it and still read some of the finer print. I based it off the full scale Black Box map (told you all I was old school) with the details from the Gazs all over it.