Campagin as Benevolent Undead: I Ain't 'Fraid of Myself [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campagin as Benevolent Undead: I Ain't 'Fraid of Myself [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Leliel
03-29-08, 07:34 PM So I was thinking: "You know, no matter where you find them, undead are always the bad guys. I mean, I can understand why, given that there is an inherently creepy factor in the dead rising from their graves to willfully interfere with the matters of the living, but still, in mythology, the undead weren't always evil. Take the lares of Roman myth, for instance." Of course, trains of thought being what they are in my head, this soon took root, and I came up with this idea:

Non-evil party get killed at the beginning of the campaign by a mysterious mastermind (The BBEG or one of his servants), but are brought back to animation by a strange, seemingly intelligent artifact with the ability to turn positive energy into negative, and vice versa. Now, they have to solve both the mystery of who killed them and what the artifact has to do with it, while making amends to their family and friends, finding a way back to the grave, avoiding torches and pitchforks from townsfolk who have every reason to hate intelligent undead, and normal adventurer things.

So, what do you think of this idea? What would be some good (ie sympathetic) villain ideas? What ideas for the aforementioned artifact's purpose do you have? How much should I kill the unoriginal dimwit who tries to play an "angsty vampire" wannabe?

OK, few guidelines:

1) This game will go under "Necromancy is not evil" territory, of course.

2) The "mysterious, seemingly intelligent artifact" is my answer to the annoying "But what about healing and resurrection" question. And no, I do not want it to be evil or the BBEG that killed them in the first place. That, although a good plot twist, doesn't do it for me.

3) The players will chose what kind of undead they want to be. Allips, shadows (sans create spawn ability), intelligent zombies....If it is within the LA range, it's OK by me.

4) Except liches. They were evil before they became undead.
mycroftb
03-30-08, 03:56 AM I'm thinking of something along the lines of the Silver Flame sect from Eberron. They're dedicated to hunting down and destroying therianthropes of all stripes, no matter how afflicted, and have in the past even slaughtered people they simply thought were werewolves. Something like this for undead would work.

This sect, in the past, was devoted to serving a minor NG sun deity. It could be the god of an indigenous people long conquered, whose original culture is long forgotten, and "race" spread so thin through centuries of cross-breeding as to be virtually non-existent. Through greed, corruption, false prophets, etc. the religion has been twisted to serving intolerant ideals, as its followers focus more and more on its mortal history than on the original deity. The leaders of this new LN sect now want order and control by any means necessary - and if something can't be made orderly or controlled, then it must be destroyed. Through manipulation and propaganda, this religion has moderate popular support amongst the people, as false rumors spread about the brave exploits of heroes who defend against powerful encroaching foes.

That's where Our Heroes come in. The nearly-forgotten deity, significantly weakened from lack of faith, saw the destiny of the PCs to restore it to its rightful place. It has managed to subtly manipulate luck and chance to bring them all together in one place. It was on its way to leading the PCs to a very important clue that would send the entire sect into chaos, effectively destroying it. BBEG somehow learned of this, and had the PCs slaughtered before they could ever know anything. The deity had been expending so much effort to do as little as it did that it did not foresee this.

With its only chance to regain even a fraction of its former glory gone, the deity used the absolute last of its divine power to restore a little spark of life to the PCs, and doom itself to being nearly helpless as a mere object amongst the mortals.

Through the ties it forged with the PCs, it can draw upon them to fuel its power, subtly nudging and guiding through the campaign until it has achieved enough to communicate more directly with them.
Raxxman
03-30-08, 07:49 AM I once started a 1 on 1 game with a Paladin who ended up dominated and performing a grand evil act before being killed (dice rolls weren't with the guy) as this was about 2 hours into the game, I decided that the gods brought him back as a sort of LG Death Knight in order for him to atone for his actions.

Seemed to start off quite well after the initial WTF? but I moved away after a few sessions.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Leliel 03-29-08, 07:34 PM	So I was thinking: "You know, no matter where you find them, undead are always the bad guys. I mean, I can understand why, given that there is an inherently creepy factor in the dead rising from their graves to willfully interfere with the matters of the living, but still, in mythology, the undead weren't always evil. Take the lares of Roman myth, for instance." Of course, trains of thought being what they are in my head, this soon took root, and I came up with this idea: Non-evil party get killed at the beginning of the campaign by a mysterious mastermind (The BBEG or one of his servants), but are brought back to animation by a strange, seemingly intelligent artifact with the ability to turn positive energy into negative, and vice versa. Now, they have to solve both the mystery of who killed them and what the artifact has to do with it, while making amends to their family and friends, finding a way back to the grave, avoiding torches and pitchforks from townsfolk who have every reason to hate intelligent undead, and normal adventurer things. So, what do you think of this idea? What would be some good (ie sympathetic) villain ideas? What ideas for the aforementioned artifact's purpose do you have? How much should I kill the unoriginal dimwit who tries to play an "angsty vampire" wannabe? OK, few guidelines: 1) This game will go under "Necromancy is not evil" territory, of course. 2) The "mysterious, seemingly intelligent artifact" is my answer to the annoying "But what about healing and resurrection" question. And no, I do not want it to be evil or the BBEG that killed them in the first place. That, although a good plot twist, doesn't do it for me. 3) The players will chose what kind of undead they want to be. Allips, shadows (sans create spawn ability), intelligent zombies....If it is within the LA range, it's OK by me. 4) Except liches. They were evil before they became undead.
mycroftb 03-30-08, 03:56 AM	I'm thinking of something along the lines of the Silver Flame sect from Eberron. They're dedicated to hunting down and destroying therianthropes of all stripes, no matter how afflicted, and have in the past even slaughtered people they simply thought were werewolves. Something like this for undead would work. This sect, in the past, was devoted to serving a minor NG sun deity. It could be the god of an indigenous people long conquered, whose original culture is long forgotten, and "race" spread so thin through centuries of cross-breeding as to be virtually non-existent. Through greed, corruption, false prophets, etc. the religion has been twisted to serving intolerant ideals, as its followers focus more and more on its mortal history than on the original deity. The leaders of this new LN sect now want order and control by any means necessary - and if something can't be made orderly or controlled, then it must be destroyed. Through manipulation and propaganda, this religion has moderate popular support amongst the people, as false rumors spread about the brave exploits of heroes who defend against powerful encroaching foes. That's where Our Heroes come in. The nearly-forgotten deity, significantly weakened from lack of faith, saw the destiny of the PCs to restore it to its rightful place. It has managed to subtly manipulate luck and chance to bring them all together in one place. It was on its way to leading the PCs to a very important clue that would send the entire sect into chaos, effectively destroying it. BBEG somehow learned of this, and had the PCs slaughtered before they could ever know anything. The deity had been expending so much effort to do as little as it did that it did not foresee this. With its only chance to regain even a fraction of its former glory gone, the deity used the absolute last of its divine power to restore a little spark of life to the PCs, and doom itself to being nearly helpless as a mere object amongst the mortals. Through the ties it forged with the PCs, it can draw upon them to fuel its power, subtly nudging and guiding through the campaign until it has achieved enough to communicate more directly with them.
Raxxman 03-30-08, 07:49 AM	I once started a 1 on 1 game with a Paladin who ended up dominated and performing a grand evil act before being killed (dice rolls weren't with the guy) as this was about 2 hours into the game, I decided that the gods brought him back as a sort of LG Death Knight in order for him to atone for his actions. Seemed to start off quite well after the initial WTF? but I moved away after a few sessions.