Curse Needed follow up....

[Van Owen]

Okay, I have the curse, and I have the Darklord, one Maelwyne Cymri, King of Llanwern. Now, this is, by decree of the lady I'm running this for, not Ravenloft, so while I'm making it in that style, including the rules, it isn't, strictly speaking, the land itself. No Dark Powers

The Beginning of the history, Draft 1:

The Cymric line of royalty had ruled, and well, for centuries, with the occasional bad seed until the end of the reign of King Cadowyne IV. Cadowyn had two sons he very much loved, and had doted on since their mother had died many years back, a woman of West Llanwern, for the tradition was that a king of the East would take a wife of the West, and so the bonds between the two lands would be strengthened through ties of blood. The sons were Llewellyn and Maelwyn. Maelwyn was the oldest, and heir to the throne, a hard working man much like his father, who took his duties seriously and took little time for mirth or amusement, becoming grim and dour as a result. His brother, Llewellyn was the opposite, a light hearted soul who always had time for a song or merriment. While Maelwyn frequently stayed at the castle assisting his father in running the kingdom, or was in the field with the troops, fighting the beast-men that dwelt in the mountains, Llewellyn was traveling the land with his band, becoming well known throughout the realm, with tales of his exploits, both real and imagined, embellished by minstrels, sung in every alehouse and tavern. These tales made their way back to his brother, who was not amused. From boyhood, the two had been rivals in everything, and were equals in almost every regard. While Maelwyn had to work and practice hard, however, everything seemingly came easy to his brother. Maelwyn looked much like his father, dark of eyes and hair, possessing regal bearing, with a well trimmed beard. Llewellyn on the other hand, was slighter and slimmer than his brother, with the delicate, finely chiseled features, that spoke of Fey heritage, coupled with the red hair, and green eyes that were common in the West. What frustrated Maelwyn most, was no the attention that Llewellyn received, for despite his rivalry with his brother, he had to admit that the man was accomplished enough to be worthy of them, but the lack of credit for his own service. Maelwyn devoted his life and time to making himself a worthy heir, learning the intricacies of governing a kingdom, or leading the troops in assaults against a beast-man tribe, but in many parts of the realm, his name was practically unknown, or he was known only as the son and heir of King Cadowyne, his deeds in service of the land not recognized. Despite these feelings, Maelwyn grudgingly respected his brother, and directed most of his ill feelings towards an ungrateful populace that would rather have tavern tales than true rulership. This was soon to change, however…

As King Cadowyne’s health began to deteriorate, Llewellyn began to stay closer to his father, using his stories and songs to ease the old king’s ills, and another visitor arrived at court, Megan Imre, High priestess of The Earth Mother, who also came to assist the ailing ruler. Despite her title and attendant responsibilities, Megan was a young woman, and much favored by the goddess she served. In the course of her duties of attending to the king, she became very well acquainted with both brothers, each of which desired her. For her own part, Megan admired both men; Llewellyn was charming and his love and devotion to his father was evident, while Maelwyn was hard working and increasingly bore more and more of the responsibility of the kingdom on his shoulders as the king’s health worsened, without comment or complaint. It was something she could understand. Eventually, the two brother’s affections came to the point where she finally had to choose between them. It was a hard decision, but in the end, she chose Llewellyn. For one, she felt that the young man could use someone more grounded to compliment his own nature, and secondly, his lightheartedness offered her shelter from her own set of worries, and responsibilities at the head of her religion. Though he didn’t take the news well inwardly, Maelwyn coldly wished the two best of fortune, and declined the invitation to their wedding, pointing out that he had a kingdom to manage. Inside, Megan’s rejection ate at him, but there was little he could do, save throw himself into his work to forget about it. Matters might have healed themselves over time, but for the final action of his father.

For many years, West Llanwern was ruled lightly, receiving little attention from the kings who ruled in the eastern part of the land, and were separated by the mountains, and a large dry, rocky expanse from the western half. As a result, it received little benefit of the wealth of the rest of the land, and the royal neglect allowed banditry to become a menace, and the beast-men often raided, as the more organized opposition was in the east. At one point, Maelwyn himself had to lead the army against an enterprising chieftain who sought to carve a kingdom of his own out the land. If it were to prosper, then surely, West Llanwern needed effective governance. To this end, Cadowyne in his will named that Llewellyn would rule West Llanwern as its king, and the two brothers would jointly administer the kingdom in this way. Though there problems with this, and the old king’s health by physically and mentally was declining at this point, it was placed in his will as his final decree as Sovereign of Llanwern. It was week after the wedding of Prince Llewellyn and High Priestess Imre that Cadowyne passed on.

When the will was read, Maelwyn was crushed. In a short time, he’d lost the hand of the one woman he’d ever dared to love, his father, and now, half his kingdom. His reaction was sharp—He as much as told his brother to leave and never darken the doorstep of East Llanwern again. Had less passion reigned, then things might have been fixed, such as the west made a dukedom that Llewellyn ruled in the name of his brother, something that Llewellyn would have gladly accepted, but once spoken, such words are hard to take back, and harder still by a king. Accepting there was little he could do to placate his brother’s wrath, Llewellyn departed across the mountains with his wife to take charge of his new kingdom in Caerglan, the main castle in the land.

While Llewellyn settled down to rule his new kingdom, and his queen sought to help him learn the responsibilities of the position, Maelwyn looked for someone to turn to ease his mind over his own inner turmoil. Maelwyn had never been a religious man, despising the priests of the Morninglord, for their gaudiness and, in his mind, vanity had never made the faith popular with him, while any representative of the Earth Mother brought back memories of Megan. In the end, he turned to a priest of an unnamed god, who ministered to some of the soldiers of the keep, Vicar William Oglivy. Oglivy was as much a warrior as a priest, but was more than willing to listen to the king, taking his confessions, and often giving stern advice, which nevertheless won Maelwyn’s respect. As time went on, the two became friends, and Oglivy told the king his secret, that he was indeed a follower of the Tyrant, Bane. Maelwyn was at first shocked and horrified, for the god had a very dark name and darker still reputation, but William consoled Maelwyn, and his words were pleasing, as Bane’s were wont to be to those who wanted to rule, and had little care for their populace, as was the case with Maelwyn, and thusly, his corruption and conversion to The Tyrant began. One of Oglivy’s suggestions was that Maelwyn take a fit wife, which would make him forget about Megan. He had the perfect woman in mind, Arella, his sister, and a sorceress who dabbled in the forbidden practice of Necromancy, and darker arts still. It wasn’t hard for her to seduce him, and lead him to a lifestyle of debauchery of the most vile and corrupt nature, which Oglivy blessed and excused, with the argument that a king should be free to do whatever he wished. . By the fourth year of his reign, he was thoroughly under the influence of the evil pair, and tolerance for the evil followers of The Tyrant had grown, though attempts to spread their evil was often secretively foiled through actions of the clergy of the Earth Mother, and the Morninglord. When Maelwyn allowed the construction of an open temple to The Tyrant, in Byrnwick, the main city of the realm, it was sacked and burned on the first morning that it was open, the followers of the Morninglord, led by the mysterious Solari, left not a single Banite alive, despite the strong contingent protecting the place. In a rage, Maelwyn outlawed the order, and ordered all members seized, only to find all known havens of the order abandoned. In the wake of this attack, laws were passed which limited the ability of any religious institution in the realm to keep contingents of armed soldiery, except for a small number of temple guards. As this was going on, Vicar Oglivy was assembling his own army. Bandits, evil mercenaries, rogues, and other despicable types were recruited then trained as part of the army. The former members of the army either had their units disbanded, or were sent to remote locations, such as Southwatch Tower. Soon, East Llanwern’s army had grown to the largest size the kingdom would support. During this time, Oglivy had been further poisoning Maelwyn’s mind against his brother, and Maelwyn had come to see him as an usurper who’d always taken what had rightfully belonged to his brother—the fame and love of his people, the woman who should have been his wife, and half of the kingdom that should have been his own. Oglivy scolded him, and pointed out that sharing his kingdom with one of that nature was an abomination to Bane, and that Maelwyn needed to conquer it to bring himself respect in the eyes of his dark lord. Though it took some time, Maelwyn finally agreed. He and Oglivy devised a plan. Maelwyn would mend fences between himself and his brother, sending gifts, and asking that his marriage to Arella be performed at Caerglan Castle, to cement the ties between their kingdoms. There would be festivities, and the wedding performed, then, while off guard, Maelwyn’s soldiers would take the castle. Though Maelwyn and only a small party would travel to Caerglen, the army would follow behind them, at a distance not easily noticed.

Now, while all of this is going on, Arella is going to be digging deeper, and is going to uncover a ritual of power that will grant one tremendous power, and offer near immortality. What bothers her is the fact that she can't easily identify the source of this power, so she and Oglivy do some research, using divinations and speaking with the dead to learn that in very ancient times, a sect of druids accidently tapped this mysterious power, and were corrupted almost instantly by contact with it. They spread their darkness and corruption over the land, and that which was behind them grew in power, to where it was a threat to the entire world, enough so that Lathander in person stepped forward to confront it, while his followers, led by the Solari (a knightly order--in this campaign, clerics are all part of knightly orders, while you average village priests and such, are experts capable of a few limited blessings.) While his followers did battle with the corrupted forces of this nameless entity, Lathander himself fought it for six days, victorious on the dawn of the seventh, and, with the help of Chauntea who had aided him in the battle with healing and protections, locked the evil away, for even the gods could not destroy the thing. Some of its Cultists survived for a time, however, and worked to devise a method of releasing it. The key was to sacrifice high servants of the gods that imprisoned it, Chauntea and Lathander on a specially prepared alter, that would then form a gate and free it. They decide to use Maelwyn as sort of a guinea pig with this. Oglivy is evil, but not stupid, and he figures that releasing this thing would be a bad idea, but working with Arella figures out how to change the ceremony whereby only sacrificing only one servant, they can allow it a link into the world, and can use the power it bestows on Maelwyn as a weapon against the established churches of the Earth Mother and Morninglord. I'm working on the exact nature of this thing, and the exact powers it will bestow as part of the ritual. What I have in mind is a weaker form of Red Death. (Hmm...Maybe Black Death?) So my question is, after this longwinded history, what powers is it likely to bestow on Maelwyn, and what is the exact nature of the thing likely to be? I know a little bit about Red Death, but not enough to answer this question. I'll note that it cannot bestow any sort of undeath on him, as that is going to be part of his curse from another source...

Incidently, the map I'm using at this time, is a CC2 edited map of Nidala from the Mordentshire Cartographic Society. As I also have the program, I can modify it as I please. Before I begin to run, I may replace it with a different map.

I should also note, once the ceremony is performed that the land will be enclosed by mists to imprison the thing so it cannot spread it's influence beyond the domain, making it very much like a Ravenloft Island of Terror...