Fake History Lesson (long) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Fake History Lesson (long) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Kaiberon
11-29-04, 05:59 PM This is basically some background for a campaign idea if anyone thinks it's cool I'll write up some modules:

A long time ago during the wars against the Rakshasah Rajahs there was a clan of humans called DirMor. They were little more than hunters and gatherers amid the clash of the world's arcane masters. Shortly before the Rakshasah's defeat by the sacrifice of the Couatl, the matriarch of Clan DirMor, Apadya (Human Fighter 2/Barbarian 4), allied the clan with the nearest entity she thought capable of protecting her clan, a Rakshasah Rajah named Suvashta Umpeya.

The union changed the Clan forever in two ways. Firstly, the introduction of Rakshasah blood begat Warlocks, who's endless supply of eldritch fire turned many a battle in the favor of Suvashta's forces. Secondly, the destiny of the clan became more significant in relation to the fate of Eberron and so Apadya manifested the Least Mark of Summoning.

Ultimately Suvashta and all his kind were defeated by the Couatl, but Clan DirMor had benefited greatly despite his defeat and pushed forward for status as the House Indiramor, using their Arcane forces and powerful Dragon Marks to earn the political leverage necessary. Ultimately came the war of the Mark and House Indiramor and several others were abolished and all their line destroyed. House Indiramor was a particular target of the fast growing Church of the Silver Flame, which hunted their number down with great zeal due to the fiendish nature of their power. Yet here and there in Eberron the Least Marks of the now dead houses appear (Aberrant Mark feat).

Less than 30 years ago a woman strode across the Talenta Plains and left a male child in a halfling orphanage then departed leaving only his name, Kaiberon. As the boy grew it was clear he was different. During his adolescence he manifested the signs of a cursed heritage, the powers of a Warlock. The halflings banished him to outside city limits and would only suffer him a trip into town every now and again for food stuffs. He lived alone for nearly ten years and few knew what he was doing. The younger children began to call him the Wyrd (Weird) thinking him perhaps a Fey or spirit.

In fact he was mastering his power and occasionally searching for the woman who had left him, for he'd been told his face bore so strong a resemblance she could only be his mother. After 10 years of searching he had learned much of the world and grown powerful and skilled, but also bitter and angry. He had grown cruel and self centered in his exile, then the Mark appeared. He began to manifest the Mark of Siberys, but he could not make it out nor summon its power. So he quested and finally encountered a learned Excorcist of the Silver Flame who recognized his power and the marks meaning. The two clashed and in the couse of their battle it was revealed "No, Scion of Indiramor! Your fell power shall not be allowed to blossom further!" Shouted the Excorcist, but ultimately Kaiberon's chill tentacles choked the life from him.

Overcoming such an opponent proved his worth and Siberys Mark of Summoning manifested fully (limited Summon Monster VIII 1/day *see below*). With the name of his house he needed only find a scholar who knew the tale, and so he searched and ultimately discovered the sad truth of his line's extermination. Centering on the key role played by the Church of the Silver Flame he swore vengeance and set across Khorvaire to find other's who had been wronged by the Church. there was no small number and for them he prayed to his evil patron, the All father of his line Suvashta. In their desire for vengeance those gathered by Kaiberon the Wyrd earned divine power and the most skilled among them swore a sacred vow to destroy the Silver Flame. They were given the Cursed Black Flame and sent out to destroy the silver zealots.
**
the campaign idea is pretty straight forward, the PCs meet Kaiberon (Human Warlock 5) and find out he's looking for his mother, maybe they help him out. they come across him a few other times as he's looking for information about his family, they see he's lonely, and that that lonliness has driven him to cruelty as he uses extreme methods to get information by 10th level he should be leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Eventually they meet his mother and have to kill her since she's a half-fiend and afraid the party will put 2 and 2 together and find out about Kaiberon's history/destiny. Finally at 13th he has the Mark and the PCs witness his battle or if the GM is lucky there's an Excorcist in the party he can seperate and combat. (the player has probably been champing at the bit to off the guy anyway). then the real fun begins.

With the Mark he can only summon the Elite forces Of Suvashta Umpeya's army which still stands in his Extradimensional Fortress Vashtamir (Artifact level Leomund spell).
These include:
Ororin the Hellmount, (fiendish T-Rex) Mount and sometime lover of Suvashta.
The Half-Fiend Gnoll Fighter BenZaten, a mere Seargent but arguably the mightiest single warrior.
The Silvered Kyton Three. Vassals and Knights in Suvashta's armies 1d3 Kyton's who wield Silver Chains. These fiends are especially eager to take revenge
on the Silver Flame, who bound them and performed a foul ritual making their Chains an alchemical Silver for use in hunting down Lycanthropes.

When Kaiberon hits 15th level he takes Leadership and gets a bunch of followers, all shooting to meet the prereq's for Black Flame Zealot (Complete Divine). He can also use his Mark 2/day, but he can only summon a given creature once so if he summons Ororin on round 1, round 2 he has to summon BenZaten or the Kytons. He can summon 1d3 creatures from the lesser levels but by thgen he's getting cooks (bearded devels) and gardeners (fiendish giant praying mantis)
cosmikube
11-29-04, 06:57 PM this looks great!
i love the idea!
i just wish i played often enough to have such level spanning plans! are you planning on giving the players any chance of success against him before he becomes a "religious" leader?
Kaiberon
11-29-04, 11:32 PM I've given it some thought and i figure it would be pretty cool to have become this sort of Messianic icon if they just manage to off him early, if that occurs the cult will work on freeing the Rakshasah and that will lengthen the Campaign.

However as a human he has 2 starting feats and i've given him heroic spirit and Action boost, affording him a few Action Dice and they're D8s, once he hits Heir of Siberys it'll bump him to 5 Action Dice and he'll have the Action Surge Feat, a Warlock Sceptre and a Chasuble of Fell Power Allowing him to do a heinous volley of Eldritch blasts, something like 39d6 (all maximized) in a round once per level (since it costs 2 action dice) Quicken/Maximized then standard maximized then Action Surge and Maximize. He can single out 1 person or spread the damage out over 3 targets and leave a summoned monster to finish them off.

I've made some rules decisions about Eldritch Blast based on what it says in Complete Arcane and the rules for the Quicken and Maximize Spell Like Ability Feats. Basically a Warlock has to voluntarily lower the Effective Spell Level of his Eldritch Blast. this works out to be pretty balanced in a few ways, 1 if he opts to apply an eldritch Essence Invocation to it that affords a saving throw it will lower the save DC, 2 Even at 20th level a Quickened Eldritch Blast won't punch a hole in a Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Thus it really only works out well if he has a surprise round and they have no standing defenses.
wizard of oz
11-30-04, 12:42 AM bravo!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kaiberon 11-29-04, 05:59 PM	This is basically some background for a campaign idea if anyone thinks it's cool I'll write up some modules: A long time ago during the wars against the Rakshasah Rajahs there was a clan of humans called DirMor. They were little more than hunters and gatherers amid the clash of the world's arcane masters. Shortly before the Rakshasah's defeat by the sacrifice of the Couatl, the matriarch of Clan DirMor, Apadya (Human Fighter 2/Barbarian 4), allied the clan with the nearest entity she thought capable of protecting her clan, a Rakshasah Rajah named Suvashta Umpeya. The union changed the Clan forever in two ways. Firstly, the introduction of Rakshasah blood begat Warlocks, who's endless supply of eldritch fire turned many a battle in the favor of Suvashta's forces. Secondly, the destiny of the clan became more significant in relation to the fate of Eberron and so Apadya manifested the Least Mark of Summoning. Ultimately Suvashta and all his kind were defeated by the Couatl, but Clan DirMor had benefited greatly despite his defeat and pushed forward for status as the House Indiramor, using their Arcane forces and powerful Dragon Marks to earn the political leverage necessary. Ultimately came the war of the Mark and House Indiramor and several others were abolished and all their line destroyed. House Indiramor was a particular target of the fast growing Church of the Silver Flame, which hunted their number down with great zeal due to the fiendish nature of their power. Yet here and there in Eberron the Least Marks of the now dead houses appear (Aberrant Mark feat). Less than 30 years ago a woman strode across the Talenta Plains and left a male child in a halfling orphanage then departed leaving only his name, Kaiberon. As the boy grew it was clear he was different. During his adolescence he manifested the signs of a cursed heritage, the powers of a Warlock. The halflings banished him to outside city limits and would only suffer him a trip into town every now and again for food stuffs. He lived alone for nearly ten years and few knew what he was doing. The younger children began to call him the Wyrd (Weird) thinking him perhaps a Fey or spirit. In fact he was mastering his power and occasionally searching for the woman who had left him, for he'd been told his face bore so strong a resemblance she could only be his mother. After 10 years of searching he had learned much of the world and grown powerful and skilled, but also bitter and angry. He had grown cruel and self centered in his exile, then the Mark appeared. He began to manifest the Mark of Siberys, but he could not make it out nor summon its power. So he quested and finally encountered a learned Excorcist of the Silver Flame who recognized his power and the marks meaning. The two clashed and in the couse of their battle it was revealed "No, Scion of Indiramor! Your fell power shall not be allowed to blossom further!" Shouted the Excorcist, but ultimately Kaiberon's chill tentacles choked the life from him. Overcoming such an opponent proved his worth and Siberys Mark of Summoning manifested fully (limited Summon Monster VIII 1/day see below). With the name of his house he needed only find a scholar who knew the tale, and so he searched and ultimately discovered the sad truth of his line's extermination. Centering on the key role played by the Church of the Silver Flame he swore vengeance and set across Khorvaire to find other's who had been wronged by the Church. there was no small number and for them he prayed to his evil patron, the All father of his line Suvashta. In their desire for vengeance those gathered by Kaiberon the Wyrd earned divine power and the most skilled among them swore a sacred vow to destroy the Silver Flame. They were given the Cursed Black Flame and sent out to destroy the silver zealots. ** the campaign idea is pretty straight forward, the PCs meet Kaiberon (Human Warlock 5) and find out he's looking for his mother, maybe they help him out. they come across him a few other times as he's looking for information about his family, they see he's lonely, and that that lonliness has driven him to cruelty as he uses extreme methods to get information by 10th level he should be leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Eventually they meet his mother and have to kill her since she's a half-fiend and afraid the party will put 2 and 2 together and find out about Kaiberon's history/destiny. Finally at 13th he has the Mark and the PCs witness his battle or if the GM is lucky there's an Excorcist in the party he can seperate and combat. (the player has probably been champing at the bit to off the guy anyway). then the real fun begins. With the Mark he can only summon the Elite forces Of Suvashta Umpeya's army which still stands in his Extradimensional Fortress Vashtamir (Artifact level Leomund spell). These include: Ororin the Hellmount, (fiendish T-Rex) Mount and sometime lover of Suvashta. The Half-Fiend Gnoll Fighter BenZaten, a mere Seargent but arguably the mightiest single warrior. The Silvered Kyton Three. Vassals and Knights in Suvashta's armies 1d3 Kyton's who wield Silver Chains. These fiends are especially eager to take revenge on the Silver Flame, who bound them and performed a foul ritual making their Chains an alchemical Silver for use in hunting down Lycanthropes. When Kaiberon hits 15th level he takes Leadership and gets a bunch of followers, all shooting to meet the prereq's for Black Flame Zealot (Complete Divine). He can also use his Mark 2/day, but he can only summon a given creature once so if he summons Ororin on round 1, round 2 he has to summon BenZaten or the Kytons. He can summon 1d3 creatures from the lesser levels but by thgen he's getting cooks (bearded devels) and gardeners (fiendish giant praying mantis)
cosmikube 11-29-04, 06:57 PM	this looks great! i love the idea! i just wish i played often enough to have such level spanning plans! are you planning on giving the players any chance of success against him before he becomes a "religious" leader?
Kaiberon 11-29-04, 11:32 PM	I've given it some thought and i figure it would be pretty cool to have become this sort of Messianic icon if they just manage to off him early, if that occurs the cult will work on freeing the Rakshasah and that will lengthen the Campaign. However as a human he has 2 starting feats and i've given him heroic spirit and Action boost, affording him a few Action Dice and they're D8s, once he hits Heir of Siberys it'll bump him to 5 Action Dice and he'll have the Action Surge Feat, a Warlock Sceptre and a Chasuble of Fell Power Allowing him to do a heinous volley of Eldritch blasts, something like 39d6 (all maximized) in a round once per level (since it costs 2 action dice) Quicken/Maximized then standard maximized then Action Surge and Maximize. He can single out 1 person or spread the damage out over 3 targets and leave a summoned monster to finish them off. I've made some rules decisions about Eldritch Blast based on what it says in Complete Arcane and the rules for the Quicken and Maximize Spell Like Ability Feats. Basically a Warlock has to voluntarily lower the Effective Spell Level of his Eldritch Blast. this works out to be pretty balanced in a few ways, 1 if he opts to apply an eldritch Essence Invocation to it that affords a saving throw it will lower the save DC, 2 Even at 20th level a Quickened Eldritch Blast won't punch a hole in a Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Thus it really only works out well if he has a surprise round and they have no standing defenses.
wizard of oz 11-30-04, 12:42 AM	bravo!