Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rekko 02-07-08, 11:51 PM	I'm currently DMing a game and trying to use the Blood of Vol, the Emerald Claw soldiers and Vol herself as the good guys. I have pieces of the idea, but the whole thing is still vague and needs refinement. So here's my still incomplete idea. Long ago, in Xen'drik, a reclusive sect of elves named the Qabalrin learned arcane secrets of might and became dominant conjurers and necromancers. They established the seeds of what would become both the principles of the Blood of Vol and their necromantic techniques and practices. It is said that a dragonshard-meteor destroyed their city-state and created the Ring of Storms. As the Qabalrin's civilization was destroyed, so were their necromantic secrets. However, their culture somehow survived the cataclysm. There were a good number of Qabalrins who had survived. It was the Vol family. The Vol, then, mixed themselves to other elf tribes. They lived side by side, but never truly blending in. They were indeed different, at least in customs. Then, the time came of the Quori invasion and of the Elf rebellion. We all know that the Dragons destroyed the Giant Empire and that the Elves fled to Aerenal. By the time, the Vol customs started to spread and touch the general customs of the elves. However, it was on Aerenal that their anciant lineage to the Qabalrin made an important way into Aereni's culture. With the manifest zones tied to Irian and Mabar and the manifestation of the Mark of Death, the Vol shaped the future of all elves. The Undeads of the Qabalrin became the Deathless of Aerenal, and soon, House Vol played a major part in the establishment of the Undying Court. Sure at first Undeads were still a common thing on Aerenal, but the Deathless became more present thanks to the many Irian manifest zones. In the Dragon-Elf wars, House Vol united with the green dragon Emerald Claw and Erandis Vol was born. This union was made out of pure love, but the Vol knew it was also a high act of treason. The child was an aberration and was hidden as long as she could be... until the day they all found out. Many of the Vol were true to her blood and stood against both the dragons and the elves and the Undying Court. Emerald Claw tried to protect his child and his love, but the forces unleashed upon them were too much. They all died. Except for Erandis, who became a lich. A few Vol survived the first raid upon their blood, and, with time, along with friend of the family, they succeeded in making Erandis escape Aerenal. The next thing to solve was to figure out what to do with the Vol ancestors that were Deathless part of the Undying Court. After long and infinite debating, it was decided that the act against the Vol family was only aimed at the actual generation and that the Undying Vol ancestors were distinctive figures among the Undying Court and meaningful to Aerenal's society. Meanwhile, Erandis d'Vol evolved with her new existence. She developed the Blood of Vol on Khorvaire, the Emerald Claw, infiltrated many levels of society to acquire all sorts of knowledge and retrieve artifacts of old. Vol has long wished vengeance upon the Elves of Aerenal and the Dragons of Argonnessen. However, her existence has been nothing but suffering, her name has been cursed and dragged in dirt and mud. Her dying wish, would be to find peace, and hopefully enter the Undying Court as a deathless lich. --- So that's my story. How can I make Vol a good guy? Why would PCs be attracted to her cause? Am I missing something? Thanks Rekko
Omnirahk, half-Rahkshi 02-08-08, 02:34 PM	You know, I took a similar idea myself. Here's what I used: Emerald Claw tried to protect Erandis and her mother, but he knew it was beyond him, and he risked death himself. Unable to save his love, the best he could do was hide Vol away and then go into hiding himself. Currently, he exists as a hoard haunt (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307b) locked away in an unnamed Kundarak bank account. I statted him up as a cleric of Evening Glory (Libris Mortis), which in Eberron truly is a sect of the Blood of Vol. Blood of Vol teaches to embrace undeath to obtain eternal life. Evening Glory teaches to embrace undeath to obtain eternal life and hence make your love truly eternal. Evening Glory is without a doubt the good side of Vol. Anyway, I had run the campaign by starting off with all of the PCs receiving word that they inherited a share of an enormous fortune, and they should report to the Mror Holds to obtain their share and meet their co-inheritors. They get locked in the vault, and then the fortune animates and appears as Emerald Claw - their benefactor. The first thing he had to do was cast prestidigation to clean up the shifter. Twice. Anyway, I had to de-emphasize the evil side of Vol. In this case, Emerald Claw sends her little "gifts" of the sort that lead her closer to recovering the Mark of Death without resorting to less savory means. Heck, just play up the fact that the Mark of Death marks the bearer for death, and Vol represents both survival and a way to control the mark. See the Lost Mark trilogy. Maybe also play up the fact that Vol was still young when she lost her family. They had kept her a secret for many years, and when they presented her (not quite an adult yet), the elves and dragons united to destroy them. Vol was essentially a teenager when she was forced to accept life as a lich to avoid destruction. Who knows? Maybe her phylactery is part of Emerald Claw's hoard. (I just really like using Emerald Claw as benefactor and taskmaster).
grifo 02-08-08, 05:21 PM	I don't see any problem with playing Vol as the good guys. Eberron alignment is fuzzy as it is, just because your a lich doesn't mean you can't have justice on your side. As far as the game is concerned it's actually pretty easy to get the PCs involved- If your talking about the lower levels of the blood you don't have any problems, these guys can really be good, even in alignment. If your talking about higher up in the food chain(the Erandis circle) all you need to do is let the little half dragon dead girl talk. After all, if you ignore the undeath thing, the Vols didn't do anything worth punishing for. Let an Npc the players know turn to them after he converted to the blood of vol and became of some importance, theres your way in. And when your dealing with Erandis d'Vol always remember - Just because she's a lich with a network of spies, soldiers, assassins and undead, it doesn't mean she doesn't believe she's doing the right thing for the right reasons. She has a heart, it's just not beating.
OctaviusIII 02-09-08, 03:39 PM	If Erandis is going to truly be of Good alignment, she needs to be more concerned for the well-being of her family than her own advancement to the Undying Court. She might be seeking for a way to replace the negative energy animating her with positive, to make her a true Deathless and thereby unlocking the secret by which her followers will be able to achieve immortality. Pattern some of the rumors about the Blood of Vol after those surrounding the early Christian church, that they eat babies and drink blood, that they engage in non-Forum-friendly acts with one another. King Kaius was a traitor to the cause - he lacked faith, and when he killed his wife in bloodlust he blamed it on Vol rather than on his own lack of self-control and wisdom.
Rekko 02-09-08, 06:41 PM	All good inputs, thanks. Yes, Erandis is looking for a way to become a deathless, and thus, be animated by positive energy. In fact, she already knows how. But she needs a Mark of Death... That's why she's mixing bloodlines and trying to find some very distant relatives. Yes, she is concerned of what happened to her family. However, they are dead. And she knows very well, that not every one is supposed to live eternally. Though, she might want to resurrect one or two relatives, or faithful friends and servants. Rekko
Edymnion 02-09-08, 10:52 PM	It depends, are you wanting to actually recast Erandis as an honest to goodness Good individual, or simply have her play the part of the good guy in your game? Because there is a vast difference between the two. If you just need her to be the good guy in your game, she does not have to be of Good alignment to do that. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" comes into effect here. As long as both sides are fighting the same enemy or going for the same goal, then Vol and the Emerald Claw can easily be the "good guys" for the campaign, without being of Good alignment. If you want to make her be actually Good, then I think you'd need to rewrite a bit more, as a lot of recent Karnnathi history would change. Its highly unlikely that Kaius would be a vampire, considering it was Vol who made him that way to try and keep him under her thumb. The Emerald Claw wouldn't be a terrorist organization, but an elite force. Personally, I prefer something in between the two. I make my Vol the equivolant of a human girl of about 12-13 years old (whatever that would be in elf years). Still a child really, just on the verge of becoming a young woman, who was a pawn in a struggle over the Prophesy. She had to witness what no child should ever have to witness, the wholesale destruction of her family. Her mother and her were in the last room of the Vol stronghold when the elven champion arrived, and cut them both down. Erandis gets mortally wounded, as does her mother. Mom has a Syberis Mark of Death (which I grant the ability to create a Lich without prereqs like the expensive phylactory, just whatever is available will do), and her final act is to save her daughter, by turning her into a lich. Everyone thinks they're all dead, and when Erandis wakes up, she has to deal with the fact that she's entirely alone. Erandis escapes, makes it to Khovaire, and due to the lich process tending to freeze your way of thinking in the form it was when you died, she has a great urge to rebuild familiar, safe surroundings. Over time, she rebuilds her family's religion (the Blood of Vol), she sets up protectors like the guards when she was alive (the Emerald Claw), and has been looking for her family (or at least their decendants) ever since. And since she still keeps the mentality of an older child, she is still in the moral state of "Its only bad if I get caught and punished for it", and over the millenia, that has become stronger and stronger, until she has virtually forgotten concepts like compassion, empathy, and love as she sees nothing but century after century of loneliness and pain. Physically, like I said, I make her look like a little girl. I don't have draconic blood actually manifest until puberty, and she died near the start of it, so she doesn't appear overtly draconic yet. At her core, she's still just a scared little girl that wants her mommy and daddy back. But surrounding that is a tough defense mechanism designed to detatch her from her softer emotions. The only intense emotions she allows anymore are anger, because acts of kindness and compassion put a crack in her wall, risking a tidal wave of regret and sadness. She can be as heartless and vicious as any child bully (a bully with massive magical and mundane resources to get whatever she wants), but if you can actually get through the wall, there is still a spark of the little girl that she used to be, waiting to come out and be happy again. Which really freaks players out when they burst into the "throneroom" expecting a horrible half-dragon lich with fangs and claws and tattered wings, and instead find a little girl's lacy bedroom, with a child hugging her teddy bear swinging her short little legs off the side of the bed. Who, when the heroes stop, unleashes horrendous magical energies at them for barging into her bedroom without permission. :D
vegetalss4 02-10-08, 07:13 AM	edy.. that... was... AWESOME have an plate of infinitive :cookie:'s i espesially liked the part about the teddy
Kreistor2 02-10-08, 08:46 AM	I split the Blood of Vol into two organizations -- the Church of the Blood of Vol and the Cult of the Blood of Vol. The Church obeys all local laws. The Cult does all of the nasty stuff attributed to the Blood of Vol while the Church provides a public face that can create legal churches across the continent. This binary BoV provides for both a decent organization that can be a friend and a vile one bent on supporting monsters that prey on ordinary people. And let me point out that one of the basic common threads in Film Noir is decent people being forced to work with vile people. When bad people are the only ones with the information you need, then bad people are the only available allies. So, this can be far more interesting than the Bov Being good. To meet Nori, keep them evil, but force the PC's into working with that evil to defeat a greater evil -- Rakshasa, Daelkyr, etc.
Edymnion 02-10-08, 02:09 PM	i espesially liked the part about the teddyWell, what do you think her phylactory was? :devil:
Syltorian 02-10-08, 04:49 PM	Well, what do you think her phylactory was? :devil: Brilliant!
Rekko 02-10-08, 06:34 PM	Edy, thanks for sharing your Erandis with us. My Erandis is actually similar to yours. However, I ranged her age around 15-16 years old (human age) instead of 12-13. Makes her a bit more mature, enabling her to be a brilliant planner, but still dealing with complex hormonal issues, which is why she is so passioned in the things she does (and note that there are two types of passions, the good side when your having fun, and the bad side when you are depressed and full of anger). My Erandis is still LE. I haven't chosen her phylactery yet, nor what the Mark of Death will be in my game. However, I think it would be cool that the mark of Death can have the power to convert undead to deathless, or maybe a magic item controlled by a Death marked character can do it. The enemies of my enemies is something I thought of. However, my PC's current enemy (well, more the people that he dislike) are the Blood of Vol and the Emerald Claw. Moreover, my player is a Seeker, and he's so angry he wants to change faith. I have to go, but I'll give you more details later. Thanks Rekko (out of topic: Edy, still waiting to see the drafts of that Truenamer/Bard PrC or something related to it)
Rekko 08-04-08, 06:00 PM	Long time no see. Last time, my player was being fallowed by the Emerald Claw and was beginning to link the terrorists to his Blood of Vol religion. Thus, making him take some distances with his faith. The reason why the agents of the Emerald Claw are tracking him is simple. Vol reads the Prophecy, and she has plans for our hero that could benefit her. Naturally, the agents of the Claw knows nothing of this, since they don't even know Vol exists. Just as a reminder, the campaign has evolved this far around a secret project of the Twelve in which the player was a bodyguard to the head of the project. The project is to build an eldritch machine, an artefact, that could empower the power of the Dragonmarks. Eventually, my player got cought up in Atur, the City of Night. He wanted to investigate the Blood of Vol to learn on his enemy the Emerald Claw, and it was on his way for an upcoming quest. There, it became clear that the Emerald Claw not only wanted to acquire the secret project of the Twelve, but also to recruit the player. There, he met with Lord Uriel Stanislar (a returning PC of a past Last War campaign, which is awsome just to have him there, and so changed). Uriel is both a priest of the Blood, and an elite agent of the Claw. He is not undead, and he doesn't know Vol exists, though he suspects a greater undead is pulling some strings. Lord Uriel's task was to show the player the experience of death and what awaits him in the afterlife. (The player by the way is named Addaus d'Deneith [pronounce A-da-house, but make that h silent]) So lacking the ressources to journey to Dolurrh and come back, Uriel sends Addaus to the Mournlands with the hope to bring him despair and to heal him with the good words of the Blood and convince the confused Addaus that his religion holds the answers. Addaus journeys into the Mournland in and near Metrol. Why Metrol? My player thought that the lightning rail tracks could help him find his way through the Mist. I found it clever so I let him through. In Metrol he discovers that the leader of the Twelve secret project was possessed by some fiend and then dies (Lords of Dust), some young dragon (Chamber) rushed into combat to try and kill him. The fiend helped the PC battle the dragon and then makes some ritual that destroys the pieces of the artefact the PC had retrieved and dies. After the ritual, the PC finds out that he became the eldritch machine he was trying to create. What it does: He is slowly developping each dragonmark and altering the Prophecy like never before. But that the player doesn't know. Mechanically, I gave my player for free something that ressembles the dragonmark secret class feature of the cataclysm mage) Addaus has returned to Atur, more confused than ever on what is going on. He has now been initiated in the Emerald Claw, but he's not trusting them. In fact, he doesn't know who to trust. He has the Chamber, the Lords of Dust, the Twelve and the Emerald Claw after him. Our last game ended in Korth below the Twelve Tower. Addaus wants to get in the office of the now dead leader of the secret project which became him. I've read the Dolurrh's Dawn article and would like to include it. So I might make the Twelve discover that Addaus has become the eldritch machine, panick and turn him to stone and send him to Dreadhold like they did to Mordain. Mordain is naturally scrying on the Twelve and likes the guy who's fate is similar to his. He might send some aberrant agents to retrieve him, maybe people of House Tarkanan just to add more Dragonmarks into the pot. On her side, Erandis can be delighted. Her goal now turns to Mordain's knowledge of breeding, and the village of Dolurrh's Dawn where some Vol are apparently living. Maybe with Mordain's breeding techniques, some Vol heirs and the help of Addaus she could try to alter the Marks of Shadow of House Thuranni into Marks of Death? Or even activate her own mark? If the PC chooses Erandis side (which I have no clue of what side he'll choose) the Chamber (and maybe more Dragon organisations later) and the Undying Court and the Deathguard are going to be his enemies. I don't have a clue yet of what the Lords of Dust might want in all of this. Surely a third party that probably roots for Erandis to weaken the Dragons. Or they might want to use Addaus as a sacrifice to awaken a rajah, I don't know yet. My idea to make Erandis the good guy here, is that she's the only one who wants Addaus alive. Dragons, Deathless, Aereni all want him dead. The Twelve turned him to stone and sent him to Dreadhold, they might want to kill him now that he got free. And the Lords of Dust are fiends after all, don't be so sure that they'll let him alive very long, or live happily ever after... I'd appreciate comments and suggestions. Thanks for reading. Rekko btw, Addaus d'Deneith is a nearly level 7 sorcerer at this point in the game. We are still playing 3.5
PJammaGod 08-06-08, 04:51 AM	Gotta say that's one v.complex campaign going on their Rekko, enough to make Ozymandias blink :P . But good stuff, keep us boardies updated on what's happening, makes for some great reading. Anywho. In the current campaign I'm running I've got a Thranite Swordmage in the party (been there since the start). It makes for some interesting interactions since he's a deserter from the Army, but is still rather faithful to Thrane and the Church of the Silver Flame (think Jedi, not Zealot). Catch is he has a huge chip on his shoulder when it comes to undead and the Emerald Claw group. Ironically in my campaign I've always looked upon Vol in a softer light. I don't cast her as good or evil, merely someone who was stuck in the middle of a diplomatic effort gone FUBAR, with Elves and Dragons hunting her non-stop. She's definetly Neutral (or unaligned according to 4e), and more concerned with ensuring that that the Line of Vol is reborn anew and rebuilding her lost family. Which makes things really interesting for another member of the party who has somewhat differing (think sympathetic views) towards the Blood of Vol. Should make for some fun future RP prospects internally.
Edymnion 08-06-08, 06:38 PM	She's definetly Neutral (or unaligned according to 4e), and more concerned with ensuring that that the Line of Vol is reborn anew and rebuilding her lost family.So your Vol has limits to what she will and will not do to regain her family?
PJammaGod 08-07-08, 06:47 AM	I would say so yes. But the thing is how do we as mortal and finite being define the concept of limits? Erandis d'Vol has been unalive and kicking for some 4000 years now. Barring certain biblical figures like Methuselah or perhaps one of the Eight Immortals, humans only live for ~75 years or so. But when you've lived for that long, mortality, morality and your view on life itself is gonna be skewed, intentionally or otherwise. I think it's one of the reasons why elves and eladrin had their lifespans halved in 4e. Otherwise why is the elf so worried about some evil rising, he's got 30 to 40 years spare change of life to battle it, there's no rush. Much the same for Vol. She may not put much value on short lifespans, what's so important about the death of a human (The death of one person is a tragedy, but the death of millions is just a statistic - Joseph Stalin). Of course she may take the complete opposite stance (which would be a nice irony), that because life is so fleeting it's also quite beautiful (which would also explain the embrace of undeath, allowing people to exist onwards past that brief fluttering of the candle). Perhaps Vol herself isn't aware that many of her undead and probably evil underlings do so much killing in her name, perhaps because she's all the way up the top of the organisation and stuck in Illmarrow Castle she knows only what she is fed. Even with scrying she may not be aware of the limits (and in the case of the Emerald Claw lack thereof) that exist for her people. Personally I see it as her having perhaps a different morality from "standard humans", but still limits in regards to her family. I'll write up more later, gtg do some sport for the evening.
Rekko 08-07-08, 11:10 AM	Yes, my game has a complicated plot. However, I'm playing a solo game, so I don't feel like doing extra homework. My player is imaginative and likes to speculate out loud. Sometimes, he does the work for me, lol, because he's so into his speculations that I change the story I had planned. I haven't played this game since my last post, so there's no updating today. PJ, Erandis' death is a tragedy, and the deaths of the millions she'll kill in her path is only a mere statistic... I like the fact that your Vol might not pull the reins of the Blood and the Claw. She might be the Queen of the Deads, but who is her counciller that whispers her what to do, and takes actions of his own? I have my idea on that. It could be the Dragons that uses her to retrieve knowledge and artifacts, it could be the Dragons that feed her hate of the Aereni, in the hope of having some sort of ally in the next wave of the Dragon-Elf wars. However, they'll have to be careful since she also hates Dragons. It could also be the Undying Court that promises her to turn her into a deathless. However, for that they'll need to discover the ritual that can change the negative energy into positive, they also have to wait for a certain alignment in the planes involving Mabar and Irian, they also need the right caster, so they read the Prophecy, both Erandis and the Court to find all these before it's too late. The Deathguard's job would be some sort of law enforcement for undeads. Not trying to oppose the goals of Vol and the Court, but trying to control the power of the undeads. Rekko
Edymnion 08-07-08, 05:53 PM	Personally I see it as her having perhaps a different morality from "standard humans", but still limits in regards to her family.Something you need to remember though, alignment in D&D is *NOT* subjective. It is quantifiable and a tactile force in the universe. It does not matter what you morals or reasoning are, your actions are either good, evil, or neutral. Does not matter how much you justify them. If the character does not mind hurting someone to get what they want, then they're already leaning towards an Evil alignment. Even if its for the greater good, causing pain and suffering for any reason is still an evil act. Its one of the reasons Eberron is great, it actually remembers this fact. You can have a cleric of a Good religion be utterly Evil, simply because they are not afraid of "crossing the line" with the enemies of the religion. As a Neutral character, Erandis would go out of her way to avoid harming others. She won't sacrifice anything major to avoid it, but she will naturally try not to hurt anyone (nor will she be altruistic and go out of her way to help anyone), she would just watch out for herself.
Demon_Paladin 08-08-08, 09:32 PM	I'm using Vol as an eventual allies to the PCs. They just finished grasp of the Emerald Claw, and are used to fighting them. Eventually, there will be a break in the Blood of Vol after a sect encourages some Warlords to try and overthrow Kaius. This sect is actually led by a Rakashasa and plans to throw all of Khorvaire into civil war. Vol then equips the PCs to stop them, along with a few Emerald Claw troops.
PJammaGod 08-11-08, 01:19 AM	(Sorry about the lateness of reply Edymnion, just finished moving house) /putsonranthat Okay first things first... seriously Wizards what gives? With the kind of profit margin you have surely you can pay for a stable and manageable server/servers? I run a po-dunky backwater joke of a server and message board for all of 12 people and it seems to be more stable than this board. The number of times I'm being forced to re-write posts (I've taken to writing them in notepad and pasting them into the message block), it's getting a bit much. /takesoffranthat ahem where was I? What I was trying to point out Edymnion is that Erandis would have a differing perspective on morality due to her background and age. I'm not saying there's a purely subjective alignment system, back neither am I saying it's purely objective. Take for example an LG dwarf. A couple of generation back some humans for whatever reason may have betrayed his clan. Now he's got this stain on his honour and he'll do what's necessary (and good) to reclaim that honour and avenge the clan grudge. Now last time I checked holding grudges over generations isn't exactlty the best thing in the world, think of the number of current and past conflicts in this world that have ocurred because of holding a long grudge over generations (I won't bother giving examples, that's a cluster f-bomb topic waiting to happen). But for the LG dwarf it's perfectly reasonable and infact quite the good, righteous and dwarven thing to do. For humans holding such a long grudge it seems to only end in disaster, for dwarves it's the norm. Now there are examples of where such grudges go wrong as well, but what I'm trying to say is that perspective and background are important to take into account. Now with Vol I don't think she'd casually kill off people and I'd say she would certainly try to avoid too much death (hence the undeath thing, it allows people to live on). But if some people die to achieve a greater good, well there's the big morality question. Do you allow/kill 1 person to save a thousand. There's no easy answer, but with Vol's 4000 year long perspective she may say "yes kill them, I've seen the longterm consequences and it's better that one dies for so many". Of course this is all shooting the breeze on a fictional character ;), to each their own and it's how I see Vol. Perhaps harshly Neutral, willing to do the right (and sometimes wrong) thing to achieve her aims. There's the story that goes that Vol offered Kaius undeath to enable him to live long enough to protect his people. He accepted the Vampiric embrace, but couldn't control the hunger and ended up doing some nasty things. Now he's angry at Vol and blaiming her for everything because he's unwilling to admit to himself that it was his weakness that resulted in the death of his wife.
androkguz 08-16-08, 01:52 PM	This idea was posted by someone on this boards about a year ago and I liked it so much that I took it for my Eberron. Eraldis dīVolīs goal is not to recontruct its family, itīs not to conquer the world, itīs not to become a goddess and much less an undying. Her goal is much much simpler and itīs only known to her and a few erudites around the world (not including her closest allies but including people like Baron Elvinor Elorrenthy, matriarch of Phiarlan, and perhaps some ascendant counciliors suspect it). Her goal is to die. Eraldis was born an abomination. Raised in secret by her very-possibly mad mother. Rarely having actual love from her manipulative father. Never knowing what's being part of a family, instead of a tool for some goal her parents had in the Dragon-Elf war. Worst it became when she was revealed to the world. If she used to feel like a monster, she was now certain of it as the indignation provoked among elves and dragons by her mere existance was strong enought for them to try to destroy her and her whole family to make sure never again such a monster is born. The Vol family quickly learned to hate her and her parents for bringing doom to them. And then something happy finnally happened. A sword punched her heart and mortally wounded her. Finally! Sweet Dolurrh's escape! She began to bleed to death and the last thing she saw in her life was her mother taking her somewhere. A minute or two latter and Dolurrh's door was just there... and then she was awakened by the last sentence of a ritual "As long as our legacy lives, you'll not die". Said her mother a moment before she was whiped from this world by a dragon's breath. EraldĄs had became a lich and she didn't even knew what her philactery was nor where was it. She has since tried to suicide thousands of times and everyone of them she comes back at some random place. She's often heard screaming in her palace in the Northern Islands. Vol has two theories: That her mother somehow managed to make The Vol bloodline itself her philactery or that her mother somehow created the perfect, inmortal lich. The second posibility terrifies her so much that she has convinced herself of the second. Hence, she looks around Khorvaire for any trace of the Blood of Vol, hoping to lure them into her religion and having them die voluntarily (or involuntarily if necesary). She wants to find the Vols not to rebuild her family, which she hates to much, but to destroy it. Very posibly, the last dragonmark has never been seen among Khorvarians not because it's beem really whipped away from the world, but because of Vol's effectiveness and because of the fear this hunting has brought uppon the bearers of the mark. Well, in this scenario, Vol can perfectly work as the goodest of good girls: all she wants is to destroy this evil monster that's herself. If the PCs can show her how, she would gladly help. (but I suspect that the Cult would not be so happy)
Dread Lord 08-17-08, 02:58 AM	In a campaign that we didn't get a chance to finish the BBG was a mummy cleric of the old Blood of Vol. When he was alive it was the only religion of the elfs' and he was one of the high priests. He'd gone a little bonkers locked away in the pyramid for eons and was bent on making the world immortal... and not the way Erandis and her lot want it done. But, if he'd been a good guy then he could have started a whole new faction of the religion that was in fact good. Erandis and the Emerald Claw could keep up all their nasty ways and there could still be room for a good BoV religion.
PJammaGod 08-20-08, 04:26 AM	Thanks for the repost androkguz, it was a good read and a great (almost Eberron) slant on morality, motivation and actions. Vol wanting to destroy herself because she recognises what she is. *shudder* that's so dystopian it would give Gibson a nerd-on.
Rekko 09-03-08, 06:42 PM	Opinion needed As you all know, I am giving a lot of power to my player's character by making him manifest every dragonmark and altering the Prophecy. I was thinking, how could I strip the player of all this power? Do I kill the character when he reaches epic level (aka, it's his epic destiny in 3.5). Or something or someone makes him lose his all-powerful dragonmark? I was thinking that such power could become unstable. The PC could need some lost Cyre artifact from the time before the Mourning. He discovers Time Travel goes back to Cyre before the Mourning, but when he's there he can't control his powers and goes ka-boom! and destroys Cyre. He would be the cause of the Mourning. And his next character could be a Cyran sent in the future by the epic-level Addaus to save the 1st level Addaus from exploding Cyre. OR He learns to read the Prophecy somehow, maybe a dragon can help him. And with time he discovers that the Mourning was a good thing, not only did it stopped the Last War, but it does some other good. However, later on he discovers that his all-powerful dragonmark is very unstable and destructive. He doesn't want to kill people and might consider exiling himself in the Mournlands. However, he puts the pieces of the puzzle together and figures out he has to travel back in time, and sacrifice himself by exploding Cyre. Rekko
Gilo 09-04-08, 07:30 AM	Opinion needed I was thinking, how could I strip the player of all this power? Do I kill the character when he reaches epic level (aka, it's his epic destiny in 3.5). Or something or someone makes him lose his all-powerful dragonmark? I was thinking that such power could become unstable. The PC could need some lost Cyre artifact from the time before the Mourning. He discovers Time Travel goes back to Cyre before the Mourning, but when he's there he can't control his powers and goes ka-boom! and destroys Cyre. very much in the spirit of the "Dragonlance Legends" books: Raistlin Majere travels back in time before the cataclysm to challenge Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness, and assume her place in Krynn's pantheon of gods. but he discovers that he is doomed to repeat history ("Footsteps in the sand, leading me on ..."). at the end of the trilogy he gives up his quest to become a God after realizing the destructive consequences of the alternate time line. Another idea: What if the PC is in fact a Dragon. The other Dragons have pulled a "Total Recall" on him (for reasons relating to Prophecy) hes without memory of this fact and as such hes trapped in his polymorphed humanoid form. the manifestation of the dragonmarks where just a stage (or a clue/cry for help - from his suppressed conscience) in the PC return to its dragon form.
Rekko 09-05-08, 12:49 PM	Thanks for the input. I never read the 'Dragonlance Legend' and didn't know of it until now. You are right, it's quite similar. If I go the PC-is-a-dragon route (which I don't suppose I'll do), what do you suggest I do when he finds out he's a dragon? Do I make him create another character or do I let him play as the dragon? Rekko
Gilo 09-06-08, 02:01 AM	Thanks for the input. If I go the PC-is-a-dragon route (which I don't suppose I'll do), what do you suggest I do when he finds out he's a dragon? Do I make him create another character or do I let him play as the dragon? Even if he realize hes a Dragon you can still claim missing knowledge/memory which will not allow him to assume full Dragon powers. Since its 3.5E maybe he should set on some related prestige class like Dragon Blood Sorcerer (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Dragon_Blood_Sorcerer_(DnD_Prestige_Clas s)) or for playing a full Dragon PC - i think the book Draconomicon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draconomicon) had the 3.5E mechanics for it. After the ritual, the PC finds out that he became the eldritch machine he was trying to create. What it does: He is slowly developping each dragonmark and altering the Prophecy like never before. But that the player doesn't know. Mechanically, I gave my player for free something that ressembles the dragonmark secret class feature of the cataclysm mage) If you're looking for a simple way to remove the PC overpowering dragonmarks issues just go with the old Eberron rule of thumb - "What happens in the Mournlands stays in the Mournlands". :D