Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 12:46 am
I had a similar idea to Sorti's... A little different though!
So the house perhaps was a massive undertaking and cost a lot of money... Perhaps to much money... In the end slave labor, or other disposable workers were used and when they died they were buried as filler to the house to cover respective butts... Their lack of proper burial and the destruction of the truth left them with a want for revenge...
Now at first these spirits of the deceased workers were upset and decided that if they could not live on in memory except as ghosts in the house... Then none would 'live' in the house except them... This combined with the possible sinkhole and other spirits of the suggested army may have empowered them to drive others from the house...
Now with this they had little trouble till the time of the Alchemist and the two future Dark Lords Strahd and Azalin... They could do little against these arrogent and dismissive noble types that ignored or forcefully prevented them from their vengence... Then either due to the destruction of the Apparatus or just it's presence the spirits of these poor but vengeful workers bonded into one disjointed mind... Weakend in mind but increased in power the houses orignal tenants became almost like a feral force for a time... But it was still intelligent and while mad it was trying to act... The Dark Powers took notice...
Godfrey arrives and while the houses spirits attempt to punish him and drive the family from the house, they failed the unstable man killed his wife and daughter and so on... This increased the evil in the house and the damaged bits of soul that failed to bond with the new ghosts began to join with the fused beings conciousness. It began to discover it could while empowered with evil acts, pull the energy to begin to heal it's shattered mind for its purpose... Still it was filled with rage as it was dependant upon a "nobel" just like the ones who had caused its deaths and its bonded suffering state... Through the time that Godfrey was in the house as its "undead Dark Lord" he slowly began to unintentionally gather power for it... He commits all sorts of evil acts that power the house and, the fragments of "Charisma" are the more violent and malevolent thoughts beaten out of the souls in residence in the house... The torture of Godfrey is a mystery to the house but it gains power from that as well. For the time Godfrey was the sole Dark Lord and by the Dark Powers will he commanded the houses powers as an extention of his own, maddening them further... Seldom unexplained events of the houses will were brushed off by Godfrey when it acted out of turn...
In truth the spirits had become more independant... They find some of their goals similar to Godfreys but they are begining to subvert those that do not agree with their own. The fused spirits in the house are close enough to the power needed to be completely free willed but it uses this power to control or torment all inside it... Except Godfrey... He is the fuel, and the house is the engine... Should he not manipulate and cause evil the house would fall silent, but should the house not use its new land based influence and manipulate him he would become listless and dull once more, and with fewer new souls to beat he would provide less power...
The houses desire is somewhat warped by madness as it is blind to its limits of walls and such... The desires of vengence and solitude are overwhelming but it also wants recognition of its independance of any sort of control, and it seems to only tolerate the souls it collects for the power they provide. The spirit of the house would destroy or banish outright any creature other than its self, if it could but it must conserve power or be ignored and powerless once more... It must rely on its loathed "Ghost servents" especially Godfrey to keep that power up... It creates odd occurances and ill fortune to manipulate events in Mordent but it does not reveal it's self to Godfrey in fear that it may have to battle it's servent for control... It unlike him has limited power and it cannot stand the idea of failing when the goal is so close... Unbeknownst to it... It will never acheve it's goal without somesort of massive occurance... It is gaining power, but for every soul it holds, for every bit of land its influence grows to touch it must use more power... The dark powers have given it a near impossible goal, and right at the cusp the energy use will slip the other way to where it will begin to lose power more then gain... It will have to preform a balancing act to try and reach an exact point for all eternity... The hiding of it's self is also both benifitial and tormenting... Godfrey gets all the credit of those knowledgeable enough to know of such things being connected... This protects it somewhat from adventurers but it longs to be recognised and then left be in the peace of the grave it has claimed... Since it is dependant on others however this seems unlikely!
As for powers, well I assume that it would be a Co Darklord of a sort... I would perhaps make it able to challenge Godfrey on his powers over the domain such as closing the boarders... Other powers could be developed by people on this thread because I don't just want to unleash a long list of common powers... I don't have access to most of the Ravenloft material that others have so I do not know if this story is unintentionally similar to another haunted house in the game, or if it has any listed powers already that can be adapted!
So the house perhaps was a massive undertaking and cost a lot of money... Perhaps to much money... In the end slave labor, or other disposable workers were used and when they died they were buried as filler to the house to cover respective butts... Their lack of proper burial and the destruction of the truth left them with a want for revenge...
Now at first these spirits of the deceased workers were upset and decided that if they could not live on in memory except as ghosts in the house... Then none would 'live' in the house except them... This combined with the possible sinkhole and other spirits of the suggested army may have empowered them to drive others from the house...
Now with this they had little trouble till the time of the Alchemist and the two future Dark Lords Strahd and Azalin... They could do little against these arrogent and dismissive noble types that ignored or forcefully prevented them from their vengence... Then either due to the destruction of the Apparatus or just it's presence the spirits of these poor but vengeful workers bonded into one disjointed mind... Weakend in mind but increased in power the houses orignal tenants became almost like a feral force for a time... But it was still intelligent and while mad it was trying to act... The Dark Powers took notice...
Godfrey arrives and while the houses spirits attempt to punish him and drive the family from the house, they failed the unstable man killed his wife and daughter and so on... This increased the evil in the house and the damaged bits of soul that failed to bond with the new ghosts began to join with the fused beings conciousness. It began to discover it could while empowered with evil acts, pull the energy to begin to heal it's shattered mind for its purpose... Still it was filled with rage as it was dependant upon a "nobel" just like the ones who had caused its deaths and its bonded suffering state... Through the time that Godfrey was in the house as its "undead Dark Lord" he slowly began to unintentionally gather power for it... He commits all sorts of evil acts that power the house and, the fragments of "Charisma" are the more violent and malevolent thoughts beaten out of the souls in residence in the house... The torture of Godfrey is a mystery to the house but it gains power from that as well. For the time Godfrey was the sole Dark Lord and by the Dark Powers will he commanded the houses powers as an extention of his own, maddening them further... Seldom unexplained events of the houses will were brushed off by Godfrey when it acted out of turn...
In truth the spirits had become more independant... They find some of their goals similar to Godfreys but they are begining to subvert those that do not agree with their own. The fused spirits in the house are close enough to the power needed to be completely free willed but it uses this power to control or torment all inside it... Except Godfrey... He is the fuel, and the house is the engine... Should he not manipulate and cause evil the house would fall silent, but should the house not use its new land based influence and manipulate him he would become listless and dull once more, and with fewer new souls to beat he would provide less power...
The houses desire is somewhat warped by madness as it is blind to its limits of walls and such... The desires of vengence and solitude are overwhelming but it also wants recognition of its independance of any sort of control, and it seems to only tolerate the souls it collects for the power they provide. The spirit of the house would destroy or banish outright any creature other than its self, if it could but it must conserve power or be ignored and powerless once more... It must rely on its loathed "Ghost servents" especially Godfrey to keep that power up... It creates odd occurances and ill fortune to manipulate events in Mordent but it does not reveal it's self to Godfrey in fear that it may have to battle it's servent for control... It unlike him has limited power and it cannot stand the idea of failing when the goal is so close... Unbeknownst to it... It will never acheve it's goal without somesort of massive occurance... It is gaining power, but for every soul it holds, for every bit of land its influence grows to touch it must use more power... The dark powers have given it a near impossible goal, and right at the cusp the energy use will slip the other way to where it will begin to lose power more then gain... It will have to preform a balancing act to try and reach an exact point for all eternity... The hiding of it's self is also both benifitial and tormenting... Godfrey gets all the credit of those knowledgeable enough to know of such things being connected... This protects it somewhat from adventurers but it longs to be recognised and then left be in the peace of the grave it has claimed... Since it is dependant on others however this seems unlikely!
As for powers, well I assume that it would be a Co Darklord of a sort... I would perhaps make it able to challenge Godfrey on his powers over the domain such as closing the boarders... Other powers could be developed by people on this thread because I don't just want to unleash a long list of common powers... I don't have access to most of the Ravenloft material that others have so I do not know if this story is unintentionally similar to another haunted house in the game, or if it has any listed powers already that can be adapted!