Bringing him home, Lord George Weathermay

[Five]

George Weathermay has always been one of the most interesting NPCs to me, ever since I first read about him in the Black Box. And the changes he underwent from edition to edition seemed more organic than most of the rest.

Anyway, what possible reasons could there be that has George end his brooding exile, return home, and reclaim lordship over the sleepy yet somehow beacon of light that is Mordent?

Could age settle onto his shoulders like a bush-broke cloak and, in combination with a pleading letter from his nieces, see him home to ease his father's final moments?

Could he do this and cunningly give that last (in his mind) scream to Evil by baiting Natalia and once and for all settle the score, thus sparing Gennifer a lifetime supply of guilt and anguish that can only result from her lycanthropy?

Is he cursed to never find happiness, and Mordent likewise cursed to be swallowed by the Dark?

Mordent's current lord, George's father Jules, is said to be nearing Death's Door. And a weird byproduct of a recent bout of illness is that he can now see the spirits of the deceased. Lord Wilfred Godefroy, Mordent's darklord, is manipulating Jules' son-in-law, Mordentshire's mayor Daniel Foxgrove, into spying on the "earthly affairs" of Mordent by threatening the spirit of his deceased wife, Alice, who just happens to be Jules' daughter and George's sister. And George, deep down, already blames Daniel for Alice's death some years past.

Could Jules confide in the Weathermay twins, probably the only two people he can trust at this point without unravelling the realm, in both this queer new ability and the uncovering of Godefroy's evil schemes, and they in turn confide in George? Surely such distressing news would rekindle George's almost legendary rage. He specialises in hunting undead. His dearest sister, who he thinks is at peace, is facing unholy torture, and the man he already has issue with may be (unfairly) implicated.

Could three generations of Weathermays band together and deliver final rest to Godefroy? Jules' last surge of heroism. The twins' crucible in following van Richten's footsteps. George's homecoming and return to Humanity.

And assuming they are victorious, how does George's showdown with Daniel play out? It's been decades in the making. Does George choose the Light and forgive the man before stepping into his father's virtuous shoes? Or does he give in to his boiling anger, submit to the Dark, and "avenge" his sister, becoming Mordent's new darklord?

Lord George Weathermay indeed.

What do you think?

Edited by Joël from grandma's rule. No bad words please

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I had a huge campaign arc based around all of this, with a dreamwalking PC helping to get Jules to communicate with the others, and helping George to cope with letting the twins down, as he saw it. George was actually in an asylum after some sort of confrontation with Natalia, but he was nearly catatonic and it took them forever to find out what had actually happened. At first they had a dream where George was useless and incompetent, and they had to help him get the courage to confront Natalia, but the he snapped and attacked the dream-version of Gennifer! This led to another dream where Gennifer was the monster, and another and another, getting closer to the truth. They thought that something awful must have happened between Gennifer and Natalia, but it turned out he was catatonic because he didn't trust himself. He had all this pent up rage and frustration and was worried he would take it out on the twins.

When everything came to light, the incident that had thrown him into a tailspin had been the twins and Natalia finding out about each other...and the twins destroying her while George had been helpless. When Natalia had thought she was using her powers to force Gennifer to transform into a werewolf and attack her uncle, "Gennifer" pulled out a pistol and opened fire. Because of course, the real Gennifer was safely locked up for her own good, this was Laurie playing the oldest trick in the book when it comes to twins. She put the final shot into Natalia's head while standing over her, with the words, "My sister couldn't make it, but she sends her regards." Watching Laurie casually and utterly destroy the one foe that he had tried to protect them from for years was just too much for George, but with the PC's help he was able to recover and come back to the family.

Meanwhile the same PC had been in Jules' dreams and finding all about what Godefroy did to him, and this culminated in the discovery that Godefroy could be destroyed if he was actually put on trial and found guilty of his family's murders in a court of law. The PC eventually got a chance to do just that, and there was a knock-down-drag-out fight with all the worst ghosts of Gryphon Hill against all the Weathermay family, Carnagan Wolfe, Bastion Otrava and other anchorites, and everyone else the PC's could get into the fight. Finally the judge was murdered just as he was about to declare the verdict, and the bad guys were about to win, when Daniel Foxgrove used his authority as mayor to take over as judge and finish Godefroy off.

By the end of that fight, Godefroy and the HoGH were gone, but Bastion Otrava had been revealed as an Ermordenung and was a pariah, several of her anchorites were dead from touching her blood, Gennifer had gone mad, Daniel was permanently blind, the judge was dead, Carnagan was outed as a werewolf, also a pariah...the cost was pretty high.

But it was a rip-roaring good fight!

[Joël of the FoS]

Very cool ideas here, I might steal a few for my own campaign. I had Natalia linger here and there a few times in the last 15 years of the campaign, and George still have to show his face someday. So that kind of ending might be cool.

Van Richten is gone from my campaign (after Bleak House), now it's time George comes back and does something!