"The Lord of Blades Redux," Redux [Archive] - Wizards Community

"The Lord of Blades Redux," Redux [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
stone_dog
10-09-04, 10:25 PM A while ago I posted a thread describing a Lord of Blades that really isn't as evil as the general populace believes of him.

Here is a version that is even more evil (and a crossover to boot!).
stone_dog
10-09-04, 10:26 PM The mad prophet of the machines. Hater of all humans. Self-proclaimed Messiah and a dangerous threat to all sentient flesh.

Right.

As a GM I have to take this with a bit of a grain of salt. Not as in being a sceptic, but as in getting the flavor just right.

We have here a recluse. He seems to be wanting to set up his own nation of free warforged deep in the Mournlands. What if that isn’t what he wants at all? Has anybody ever actually SEEN the Lord of Blades? Has Saber? All the information that we (as citizens of Khorvaire… metagaming aside) have on this creature is what has been spouted by warforged of fanatical devotion. What would happen if you questioned one of these devout warriors in depth? Perhaps under a zone of truth?

“And your… master. What does it look like?”

“My master is a glorious paragon of perfection! None may stand before him and”

“Yes yes. We have been over that… how about this. When did you last actually lay eyes on the Lord of Blades?”

“…”

“Well?”

For you see, few have seen the Lord of Blades and fewer still are alive to realize what exactly they saw before a whistling cleaver separated most of their body from the rest of it.

A long time ago, before the Age of Dragons there was a place of darkness where evil swirled formlessly in the void. The Dark Powers gathered sinners together for purposes unguessable to the minds of mortals. A vampire here, a fallen paladin there, a lich of godly might and many others were imprisoned in this place. But something happened that rocked the foundations of reality itself and these powers found themselves without their place of potency. [/thinly veiled allusion to the 2nd-3rd crossover] Spinning through time and space for millennia they searched for that particular flavor of evil that can sustain their purposes. They found it.

Unfortunatly they had been reduced in might to the point where they could no longer create a demiplane of their own. Add to that a cosmology with laws completely unfamiliar to them and they fell victim to the very thing they exploited for eons. Hubris.

Clutching at the soul ripe with Evil with their last strength they tried to rip him from his native world, but found themselves trapped instead. Their death throes laid waste to an entire nation, the boarders of destruction formed from the mind of their chosen victim. From the mind of a defender of that nation. From the mind of the Lord of Blades.

What did the Lord of Blades do that attracted the attention of these entities? Perhaps a lifetime of service to Cyre was rewarded by exile when the depths of his actions was finally revealed. Perhaps on the steps of the palace he called down a terrible curse upon those who turned their backs on their former champion.*

Whatever happened, the Dark Powers flowed into and through the Lord of Blades and the Mists rose up around the Boarders of Cyre. Many people believe that the Lord of Blades is evil. What they don’t understand is that this creature has become Evil itself. A burning hatred boils in his heart for all life that is not himself. A lust for blood and death so potent that it taints the land and all the creatures within. The land and the Lord are now one nightmare, bound together by the unending darkness of the Demiplane of Dread.

But what, you ask, is to become of his cabal of followers? Those warforged carrying out his will in the outside world? Simply that the dreams of the Lord of Blades are infectious to other warforged minds. In close proximity to the Lord many warforged fall prey to a strange and perpetual domination effect and become thralls often believing that the Lord gives them commands in person.
The Lord wants to be strong and in his madness associates all warforged as part of himself. The more warforged that are free and allied to his dream, the stronger he becomes (powers granted by the increasing connection to what remains of the Dark Powers).
Some day he will be strong enough to reveal himself and lead an army of warforged through the mists to lay waste to all of Khorvaire! Or so he thinks. As the Dark Lord of the Mournlands he cannot escape the Mists, but if he realizes that he holds within him all the powers of the Demiplane of Dread itself those Mists may well roll like a tide of horror over the entire world.

Right now the Lord has yet to come into his full power. He cannot close the borders of his realm or draw on his full power as both a Dark Lord and the only (if incomplete) incarnation of the Dark Powers themselves. Can the PCs discover this growing threat in the heart of Khorvaire? Can they find the one way to defeat the Lord of Blades for all time before he can realize the potential of his situation? Or will they mistake him for a simple despot seeking his own empire? That mistake may well be fatal, for the Lord of Blades does not want to rule anything but his own destiny as the destroyer of all life.

*Go look up Hughes de Camp-d’Avesnes, the Count of Saint-Pol. He receives an excellent write up in GURPS Monsters as one of the nastiest of werewolves in legend, but you should be able to find him elsewhere as well.
stone_dog
10-09-04, 10:31 PM well there it is. Perhaps not as smooth as my first attempt, but it had to be said.

I have to admit certain inspirations. Hugh De Camp was the main one at first... then it rolled into a malevolent version of the Borg (with the idea that warforged infected by the will of the Lord of Blades might be subsumed into the will of the whole when he makes his ascention. Oddly enough I forgot to post that part before) and then I stumbled across the 3rd edition of Ravenloft and the idea just wouldn't stop rolling about in my head until I posted it.

Now I have to go before my eyes roll into the back of my head to get away from the glare of the screen for a little while. I'll be back.
Verse
10-10-04, 05:51 AM Interesting, I could have a lot of fun with that one.

I also like the very metagaming gag you have going there to.
stone_dog
10-11-04, 02:55 AM Interesting, I could have a lot of fun with that one.[/quoute]
Thanks!Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=302342) is the LG version of the LoB if you are interested. I think the one I just did is more like a chaotic evil fiend so I might have to spin my wheels around Chaotic Good and see if I can come up with something tasty.

[QUOTE=Verse]I also like the very metagaming gag you have going there to.

Heh heh heh.... yeah. I am seriously thinking about adapting some ravenloft rules to slip into the mournlands regardless of whether I actually use the LoB or not.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
stone_dog 10-09-04, 10:25 PM	A while ago I posted a thread describing a Lord of Blades that really isn't as evil as the general populace believes of him. Here is a version that is even more evil (and a crossover to boot!).
stone_dog 10-09-04, 10:26 PM	The mad prophet of the machines. Hater of all humans. Self-proclaimed Messiah and a dangerous threat to all sentient flesh. Right. As a GM I have to take this with a bit of a grain of salt. Not as in being a sceptic, but as in getting the flavor just right. We have here a recluse. He seems to be wanting to set up his own nation of free warforged deep in the Mournlands. What if that isn’t what he wants at all? Has anybody ever actually SEEN the Lord of Blades? Has Saber? All the information that we (as citizens of Khorvaire… metagaming aside) have on this creature is what has been spouted by warforged of fanatical devotion. What would happen if you questioned one of these devout warriors in depth? Perhaps under a zone of truth? “And your… master. What does it look like?” “My master is a glorious paragon of perfection! None may stand before him and” “Yes yes. We have been over that… how about this. When did you last actually lay eyes on the Lord of Blades?” “…” “Well?” For you see, few have seen the Lord of Blades and fewer still are alive to realize what exactly they saw before a whistling cleaver separated most of their body from the rest of it. A long time ago, before the Age of Dragons there was a place of darkness where evil swirled formlessly in the void. The Dark Powers gathered sinners together for purposes unguessable to the minds of mortals. A vampire here, a fallen paladin there, a lich of godly might and many others were imprisoned in this place. But something happened that rocked the foundations of reality itself and these powers found themselves without their place of potency. [/thinly veiled allusion to the 2nd-3rd crossover] Spinning through time and space for millennia they searched for that particular flavor of evil that can sustain their purposes. They found it. Unfortunatly they had been reduced in might to the point where they could no longer create a demiplane of their own. Add to that a cosmology with laws completely unfamiliar to them and they fell victim to the very thing they exploited for eons. Hubris. Clutching at the soul ripe with Evil with their last strength they tried to rip him from his native world, but found themselves trapped instead. Their death throes laid waste to an entire nation, the boarders of destruction formed from the mind of their chosen victim. From the mind of a defender of that nation. From the mind of the Lord of Blades. What did the Lord of Blades do that attracted the attention of these entities? Perhaps a lifetime of service to Cyre was rewarded by exile when the depths of his actions was finally revealed. Perhaps on the steps of the palace he called down a terrible curse upon those who turned their backs on their former champion.* Whatever happened, the Dark Powers flowed into and through the Lord of Blades and the Mists rose up around the Boarders of Cyre. Many people believe that the Lord of Blades is evil. What they don’t understand is that this creature has become Evil itself. A burning hatred boils in his heart for all life that is not himself. A lust for blood and death so potent that it taints the land and all the creatures within. The land and the Lord are now one nightmare, bound together by the unending darkness of the Demiplane of Dread. But what, you ask, is to become of his cabal of followers? Those warforged carrying out his will in the outside world? Simply that the dreams of the Lord of Blades are infectious to other warforged minds. In close proximity to the Lord many warforged fall prey to a strange and perpetual domination effect and become thralls often believing that the Lord gives them commands in person. The Lord wants to be strong and in his madness associates all warforged as part of himself. The more warforged that are free and allied to his dream, the stronger he becomes (powers granted by the increasing connection to what remains of the Dark Powers). Some day he will be strong enough to reveal himself and lead an army of warforged through the mists to lay waste to all of Khorvaire! Or so he thinks. As the Dark Lord of the Mournlands he cannot escape the Mists, but if he realizes that he holds within him all the powers of the Demiplane of Dread itself those Mists may well roll like a tide of horror over the entire world. Right now the Lord has yet to come into his full power. He cannot close the borders of his realm or draw on his full power as both a Dark Lord and the only (if incomplete) incarnation of the Dark Powers themselves. Can the PCs discover this growing threat in the heart of Khorvaire? Can they find the one way to defeat the Lord of Blades for all time before he can realize the potential of his situation? Or will they mistake him for a simple despot seeking his own empire? That mistake may well be fatal, for the Lord of Blades does not want to rule anything but his own destiny as the destroyer of all life. *Go look up Hughes de Camp-d’Avesnes, the Count of Saint-Pol. He receives an excellent write up in GURPS Monsters as one of the nastiest of werewolves in legend, but you should be able to find him elsewhere as well.
stone_dog 10-09-04, 10:31 PM	well there it is. Perhaps not as smooth as my first attempt, but it had to be said. I have to admit certain inspirations. Hugh De Camp was the main one at first... then it rolled into a malevolent version of the Borg (with the idea that warforged infected by the will of the Lord of Blades might be subsumed into the will of the whole when he makes his ascention. Oddly enough I forgot to post that part before) and then I stumbled across the 3rd edition of Ravenloft and the idea just wouldn't stop rolling about in my head until I posted it. Now I have to go before my eyes roll into the back of my head to get away from the glare of the screen for a little while. I'll be back.
Verse 10-10-04, 05:51 AM	Interesting, I could have a lot of fun with that one. I also like the very metagaming gag you have going there to.
stone_dog 10-11-04, 02:55 AM	Interesting, I could have a lot of fun with that one.[/quoute] Thanks!Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=302342) is the LG version of the LoB if you are interested. I think the one I just did is more like a chaotic evil fiend so I might have to spin my wheels around Chaotic Good and see if I can come up with something tasty. [QUOTE=Verse]I also like the very metagaming gag you have going there to. Heh heh heh.... yeah. I am seriously thinking about adapting some ravenloft rules to slip into the mournlands regardless of whether I actually use the LoB or not.