brilliantlight wrote:
Why would their secret get out? Are they leading the attack in their human form?
We're not talking about isolated encounters here. It's not a party of 4-6 adventurers. It's an army. Invasion. And that makes the spectacle of war a very public one. Educating the masses by launching same-type monsters, even in defence of the realm is a very risky move, and one that could maintain heat long after the war simmers down.
The revelations of the Dead Man's Campaign probably kept low key for the simple fact that 1) it happened in what reads to me to be remote loctions, away from witnesses. The Kargat probably took care of the handful that may have seen what unfolded; 2) Falkovnia doesn't really value diplomacy. Because of that, and their aggression, their neighbours won't ever hear or believe the stories of the vets that made it home. If it is found out that Falkovnia (Humans) are battling forces of Evil (the Undead), then you can bet your last buck on them garnering sympathy from even the most uppity of domains. It now becomes an "us versus them" thing.
That being said, it makes no sense to empower Drakov/Falkovnia by taking such a risk as launching an attack with such an inexplicable (to the lowly masses) force. It's suicide for the monsters that prefer to hide their monstrosities; a potential loss of power, habitat, comfort, etc. Classic risk-reward.
That's how I see it anyway. Obviously not every dark lord thinks alike, but still. These are faux people here. I would imagine they don't want their DP secrets revealed to anybody, especially since each of them is, essentially, a trauma victim, real or perceived (the catalyst for their crimes that delivered most of them to the DPs in the first place). And it's not just the revelation to an invading army, it's also a revelation to their enemies at home...
The Bavorians and Darkons have done jack squat about the undead in their midst. In fact the latter are used to having the undead protect them during invasions. My guess is they both let the undead and the invaders just eliminate each other.
I meant to comment of this earlier but got sidetracked.
Neither Strahd nor Azalin has access to unlimited undead. Strahd has to create his (doesn't he?). And he defends a castle with his undead, not a country. Against groups of invaders, not armies.
Azalin can only work with what he has available (how many Darkonians die every year? Multiply that by it's RL existence, add the fallen Falkovnians, subtract those that adventurers and DMC's fell...). "There is no limit to the number of undead Azalin can animate or control at any time" is, or can be, misleading. I read that as no cap on
available undead he can animate or control. Endless undead is fan boy drool (at best). Why would he have access to all of the undead in the Multiverse? He's really that special, is he?
"A very piteous thing it was to see such a quantity of dead bodies, and such an outpouring of blood - that is, if they had not been enemies of the Christian faith."
- Jean Pierre Sarrasin, "The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville"