Good place for undead army rising? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Good place for undead army rising? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
ruinedOne
09-18-07, 01:21 PM Hello FR sages. I'm not experienced in my Realms lore, having only dabbled in the lands through the old video games (original Pools of Radiance and the like) and the Avatar trilogy. I have been running my campaign there, focusing primarily on Waterdeep and the Sword Coast area.

So, if I were to select a good spot on the map for an undead army to rise and be a sufficient threat, do you have any recommendations? I look at the map, and nothing jumps out at me. And so I turn to you.

Thanks for any insight you can lend!
MarkusTay63
09-18-07, 02:05 PM The nearby Mere of Dead Men (just north of Waterdeep)?
Lord Karsus
09-18-07, 06:50 PM -An undead army marching from Thay is always a threat for the Rashemi.
BadCatMan
09-18-07, 08:56 PM The Battle Of Bones area in the Western Heartlands area would be a great source of undead, as would the Fields of the Dead near the southern Sword Coast.
Meldread
09-18-07, 11:39 PM If your BBEG has the power, coin and levels here are some suggestions. (I am going to assume that he is near level 20 considering that he has the power to raise an undead army.)

There is a large (most likely abandoned) area of the Underdark known as the Netherese Caverns. Located within the Upperdark below the Wood of Sharp Teeth, north of Durlag's Tower, south east of Baldur's Gate it is relatively close to your current location.

The caverns are cut off from the rest of the Underdark and are most likely abandoned aside from stray monsters, wandering monstrous humanoids and the odd sort you'd expect to find taking up refuge there. It does not matter overly much because it makes the perfect place for a wizard to be hiding out doing his own thing. As well as the perfect hiding place for an army of undead. The creatures that once lived there can serve as starting fuel for the army.

They contain a place called Philock which may or may not contain relics of Netherese origin. Although, at this point, the place is likely picked clean by either the Shades, Larloch or simply those who have stumbled upon it over the centuries. However, if you want your BBEG can locate an artifact that allows him to create a number of powerful undead relatively quickly. The artifact could drain the life essence (XP) from those he captures, and then use that as "fuel" to create undead.

Now, what you want with this army I am unsure. I'm going to guess that you want to use it to attack Waterdeep? If so, you're going to need lots of undead. If you are creating an army to do this I'm going to assume that your BBEG has relatively deep pockets and can afford to do something like this... if not then you may have to find methods and ways for him to be able to raise enough coin. (Which could lead to adventures all of their own.)

Once he has secured a base (be it the Caverns or some place else) he is going to need lots of fresh bodies. I suggest having him build portals to the Spine of the World and Vaasa. Commence kidnapping and killing the monstrous humanoids you find and turning them into undead. Most places care little for the creatures so if they notice a significant population drop - they may thank him unknowing of his true motives. (He may even have a front operation in which gets paid by the surrounding areas to deal with the problem. They may not know the methods he uses - believing him just to be a powerful wizard. Irregardless it creates an interesting political situation.)

When he is ready to launch his assault, have him open a portal or a series of portals near his desired location and begin marching his army through.
18DELTA
09-18-07, 11:56 PM The Battle Of Bones area in the Western Heartlands area would be a great source of undead, as would the Fields of the Dead near the southern Sword Coast.
FTW;)
Eccerion
09-19-07, 12:30 PM If I was going to make an undead army, I'd go for the more remote areas, like the south of the nether mountains or some unheard of valley in the north.
Addvantage to the fronteir is that there arent as many organized bastions of undead hunters running around so the odds of some legion of paladins showing up is slim.
Downside one would think is that the fronteir dosnt have as many warm bodies to animate, this however is overlooking the fact that a standard skeleton or zombie is the same no matter is the raw materials come from a human, elf, gnoll, orc or goblin.
And the frontier lands have an abundance of humanoids, humanoids that none of the "civilized" areas will really miss should they go missing, and even if they do its not likly they will look into it to closely.

By the time they notice the tide of undead orcs, ogres and owlbears decending on the smaller towns and settlements, it will allready be to late :D

Course there is the matter of the lords alliance but they might be a tad busy with Obould and his orcs and all the other things to worry about.
Bonzai
09-19-07, 03:13 PM In an adventure I dm'd, I went with the idea of the idea of building rome in a day (or at least 6 months). Instead of a civilization based on slave labor, I had one based on an undead work force. So I created a Pale Master that set up shop in the North, near the Spine of the World, west of Mythral Hall. Originally a small mining camp, the Necromancer created a tower close by.

The camp was his primary place for basic supplies, so he took it under his protection. When Gobliniods attacked, he slew them, animated them, and began fortifying the camp. With it's newfound saftey, it began to grow, and eventually became a small town. The undead army protects the town, builds roads and homes, and keep the town clean.

When Oboulds hordes invaded, he defended the town, and protected the people. Refugee's swarmed the town, and now it is a small pocket of humanity in a see of orcs. So the players were faced with a moral delema. Either slay the evil Necromancer, and condem the people in the town to being over run by the orcs, or let the Necromancer live, and let his army continue to grow.
Eccerion
09-20-07, 11:06 AM In an adventure I dm'd, I went with the idea of the idea of building rome in a day (or at least 6 months). Instead of a civilization based on slave labor, I had one based on an undead work force. So I created a Pale Master that set up shop in the North, near the Spine of the World, west of Mythral Hall. Originally a small mining camp, the Necromancer created a tower close by.

The camp was his primary place for basic supplies, so he took it under his protection. When Gobliniods attacked, he slew them, animated them, and began fortifying the camp. With it's newfound saftey, it began to grow, and eventually became a small town. The undead army protects the town, builds roads and homes, and keep the town clean.

When Oboulds hordes invaded, he defended the town, and protected the people. Refugee's swarmed the town, and now it is a small pocket of humanity in a see of orcs. So the players were faced with a moral delema. Either slay the evil Necromancer, and condem the people in the town to being over run by the orcs, or let the Necromancer live, and let his army continue to grow.

Ooooh I like it, my hats off to you sir :bow:

Would be good to add an extra little twist to that by having the townfolk stand up to the players to defend their lord.
"we wont let you kill the lord who keeps our children safe and keeps us alive!"
"But your lord is an evil fiend who raises the dead!?!"
"So what? he's always done right by us, and all those undead you see were bad creatures who would have killed us, now they help us to make our lives better".

Now thats a moral delema; "yes we want to kill the necromancer, but we gotta go through all these people to do it....sigh whatever happened to the good old days when evil was evil and evil got a kick in the face just for being evil?" :D
18DELTA
09-20-07, 04:13 PM There is allways THE BONEYARD from the UNDERDARK SUPPLEMENT. May want to check that out. The boneyard is under THESK & THE GREAT DALE though. The warlocks crypt north of waterdeep may also help. Larloch goes into stasis, his 60 liches go on warpath to retreive an artifact to relaese Larloch from stasis?
Calmar
09-21-07, 12:50 PM THe battle of bones is also an important stronghold of the Cult of the Dragon. Maybe you want to consider to affiliate your evil mastermind with that organization?

The Cult has undead, illegal operations, undead dragons and undead... SIGN UP NOW! :D
MarkusTay63
09-21-07, 02:11 PM There is allways THE BONEYARD from the UNDERDARK SUPPLEMENT. May want to check that out. The boneyard is under THESK & THE GREAT DALE though. The warlocks crypt north of waterdeep may also help. Larloch goes into stasis, his 60 liches go on warpath to retreive an artifact to relaese Larloch from stasis?You would want a group of PCs to face 60 Liches?!

What kind of inhuman monster are you?! :eek:

;) :P
1 ton ghost
09-21-07, 03:35 PM plenty near Waterdeep.
really, wherever there is alot of raw materials and relative isolation is fine.

technically, one ghoul could kick start the whole thing in a small village you just keep isolated. given average Fort Save and typical peasant ignorance (it's a real bad cold billy has), you'd be swelled w/ undead quickly. it's just you might have to isolate the town or further the subterfugue, perhaps as replacing village healer, witch doctor, bonesetter, or meister. that kind of clout provides a great deal of influence/privledge.
MarkusTay63
09-21-07, 04:10 PM Come to think of it, the entire City of the Dead inside of Waterdeep has already risen up at least once that I know of (Knight of the Living Dead).

That was a fun solo-adventure, but I'm not sure about how canon it is.
18DELTA
09-21-07, 04:33 PM You would want a group of PCs to face 60 Liches?!

What kind of inhuman monster are you?! :eek:

;) :P
What you act like being an INHUMAN MONSTER is a BAD thing!?;) :P :D Its not easy being EVIL!:eek: :pbbbtt: :waits:
Bonzai
09-21-07, 05:10 PM Ooooh I like it, my hats off to you sir :bow:

Would be good to add an extra little twist to that by having the townfolk stand up to the players to defend their lord.
"we wont let you kill the lord who keeps our children safe and keeps us alive!"
"But your lord is an evil fiend who raises the dead!?!"
"So what? he's always done right by us, and all those undead you see were bad creatures who would have killed us, now they help us to make our lives better".

Now thats a moral delema; "yes we want to kill the necromancer, but we gotta go through all these people to do it....sigh whatever happened to the good old days when evil was evil and evil got a kick in the face just for being evil?" :D

Thats pretty much how it was. They townsfolk fear, but respect the Necromancer. He is LE, and while his laws are harsh, they are fair, and justly applied. Mothers encourage their children to study hard so that they can become Necromancers themselves, and protect the town too. Old men begging to be turned into undead, so that they might be able to help their families...

Heh, the Necromancer has a hall filled with Husk Globes. Several of which are filled with Harpers and other do gooders that attempted to kill him. So any formal meetings with the Necromancer would be there, surrounded by the globes with clerics, Paladins, and minor heros. Of course, he argues that it was in self defence, as they actually attacked him first. Hehe, he was a great villian.

He was actually a member of the Cult of the Dragon, and had an ambitious side project. During the year of rogue dragons, he he stockpiled dragon corpses in a cave in the Spine of the World. He has been hunting down the lost phylacteries of fallen sacred ones, and plans to restore them. With enough Dracoliches returned, in his debt, and whose phylacteries are in his posession, he intends to take over the cult and become the 3rd speaker.

The players who don't want to kill him outright, have a chance at discovering his plan, and at least thwarting him that way.
Eccerion
09-28-07, 03:19 PM The main thing about creating an undead army is: can you control it?.
The bane of all would be deathlords is that they can only command so many HD worth of undead, any more simply go around doing whatever their perticular brand of undead do (which usally involves killing the living in some way).
Course if precise control isnt a big deal then letting a few ghouls, shadows, vampires or what have you is a sure fire way to bring any city to its knees if you can keep the infestation a secret til its reached a point where controling or easily eliminateing it becomes impossible.
Bonzai
09-28-07, 05:53 PM Thats the fun thing about Pale Masters. Their cap stone ability exceeds the normal control caps.
MerrikCale
09-29-07, 01:38 PM So, if I were to select a good spot on the map for an undead army to rise and be a sufficient threat, do you have any recommendations?

The Mets clubhouse. Lots of dead there
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
09-29-07, 07:52 PM The Mets clubhouse. Lots of dead there

Or in front of computers...plenty of living dead there.;)
creyzi4zb12
10-03-07, 09:11 PM Howabout in the heart of Shadowdale? Suppose Elminster get all f****d up with his spell and accidentally summons a gazillion undead to the Realms and finds himself trapped once again. Then when he returns he realizes that Faerun is filled with undead.
18DELTA
10-03-07, 11:32 PM Howabout in the heart of Shadowdale? Suppose Elminster get all f****d up with his spell and accidentally summons a gazillion undead to the Realms and finds himself trapped once again. Then when he returns he realizes that Faerun is filled with undead.
Looks like we go ourselves a winner folks.:bravo:

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ruinedOne 09-18-07, 01:21 PM	Hello FR sages. I'm not experienced in my Realms lore, having only dabbled in the lands through the old video games (original Pools of Radiance and the like) and the Avatar trilogy. I have been running my campaign there, focusing primarily on Waterdeep and the Sword Coast area. So, if I were to select a good spot on the map for an undead army to rise and be a sufficient threat, do you have any recommendations? I look at the map, and nothing jumps out at me. And so I turn to you. Thanks for any insight you can lend!
MarkusTay63 09-18-07, 02:05 PM	The nearby Mere of Dead Men (just north of Waterdeep)?
Lord Karsus 09-18-07, 06:50 PM	-An undead army marching from Thay is always a threat for the Rashemi.
BadCatMan 09-18-07, 08:56 PM	The Battle Of Bones area in the Western Heartlands area would be a great source of undead, as would the Fields of the Dead near the southern Sword Coast.
Meldread 09-18-07, 11:39 PM	If your BBEG has the power, coin and levels here are some suggestions. (I am going to assume that he is near level 20 considering that he has the power to raise an undead army.) There is a large (most likely abandoned) area of the Underdark known as the Netherese Caverns. Located within the Upperdark below the Wood of Sharp Teeth, north of Durlag's Tower, south east of Baldur's Gate it is relatively close to your current location. The caverns are cut off from the rest of the Underdark and are most likely abandoned aside from stray monsters, wandering monstrous humanoids and the odd sort you'd expect to find taking up refuge there. It does not matter overly much because it makes the perfect place for a wizard to be hiding out doing his own thing. As well as the perfect hiding place for an army of undead. The creatures that once lived there can serve as starting fuel for the army. They contain a place called Philock which may or may not contain relics of Netherese origin. Although, at this point, the place is likely picked clean by either the Shades, Larloch or simply those who have stumbled upon it over the centuries. However, if you want your BBEG can locate an artifact that allows him to create a number of powerful undead relatively quickly. The artifact could drain the life essence (XP) from those he captures, and then use that as "fuel" to create undead. Now, what you want with this army I am unsure. I'm going to guess that you want to use it to attack Waterdeep? If so, you're going to need lots of undead. If you are creating an army to do this I'm going to assume that your BBEG has relatively deep pockets and can afford to do something like this... if not then you may have to find methods and ways for him to be able to raise enough coin. (Which could lead to adventures all of their own.) Once he has secured a base (be it the Caverns or some place else) he is going to need lots of fresh bodies. I suggest having him build portals to the Spine of the World and Vaasa. Commence kidnapping and killing the monstrous humanoids you find and turning them into undead. Most places care little for the creatures so if they notice a significant population drop - they may thank him unknowing of his true motives. (He may even have a front operation in which gets paid by the surrounding areas to deal with the problem. They may not know the methods he uses - believing him just to be a powerful wizard. Irregardless it creates an interesting political situation.) When he is ready to launch his assault, have him open a portal or a series of portals near his desired location and begin marching his army through.
18DELTA 09-18-07, 11:56 PM	The Battle Of Bones area in the Western Heartlands area would be a great source of undead, as would the Fields of the Dead near the southern Sword Coast. FTW;)
Eccerion 09-19-07, 12:30 PM	If I was going to make an undead army, I'd go for the more remote areas, like the south of the nether mountains or some unheard of valley in the north. Addvantage to the fronteir is that there arent as many organized bastions of undead hunters running around so the odds of some legion of paladins showing up is slim. Downside one would think is that the fronteir dosnt have as many warm bodies to animate, this however is overlooking the fact that a standard skeleton or zombie is the same no matter is the raw materials come from a human, elf, gnoll, orc or goblin. And the frontier lands have an abundance of humanoids, humanoids that none of the "civilized" areas will really miss should they go missing, and even if they do its not likly they will look into it to closely. By the time they notice the tide of undead orcs, ogres and owlbears decending on the smaller towns and settlements, it will allready be to late :D Course there is the matter of the lords alliance but they might be a tad busy with Obould and his orcs and all the other things to worry about.
Bonzai 09-19-07, 03:13 PM	In an adventure I dm'd, I went with the idea of the idea of building rome in a day (or at least 6 months). Instead of a civilization based on slave labor, I had one based on an undead work force. So I created a Pale Master that set up shop in the North, near the Spine of the World, west of Mythral Hall. Originally a small mining camp, the Necromancer created a tower close by. The camp was his primary place for basic supplies, so he took it under his protection. When Gobliniods attacked, he slew them, animated them, and began fortifying the camp. With it's newfound saftey, it began to grow, and eventually became a small town. The undead army protects the town, builds roads and homes, and keep the town clean. When Oboulds hordes invaded, he defended the town, and protected the people. Refugee's swarmed the town, and now it is a small pocket of humanity in a see of orcs. So the players were faced with a moral delema. Either slay the evil Necromancer, and condem the people in the town to being over run by the orcs, or let the Necromancer live, and let his army continue to grow.
Eccerion 09-20-07, 11:06 AM	In an adventure I dm'd, I went with the idea of the idea of building rome in a day (or at least 6 months). Instead of a civilization based on slave labor, I had one based on an undead work force. So I created a Pale Master that set up shop in the North, near the Spine of the World, west of Mythral Hall. Originally a small mining camp, the Necromancer created a tower close by. The camp was his primary place for basic supplies, so he took it under his protection. When Gobliniods attacked, he slew them, animated them, and began fortifying the camp. With it's newfound saftey, it began to grow, and eventually became a small town. The undead army protects the town, builds roads and homes, and keep the town clean. When Oboulds hordes invaded, he defended the town, and protected the people. Refugee's swarmed the town, and now it is a small pocket of humanity in a see of orcs. So the players were faced with a moral delema. Either slay the evil Necromancer, and condem the people in the town to being over run by the orcs, or let the Necromancer live, and let his army continue to grow. Ooooh I like it, my hats off to you sir :bow: Would be good to add an extra little twist to that by having the townfolk stand up to the players to defend their lord. "we wont let you kill the lord who keeps our children safe and keeps us alive!" "But your lord is an evil fiend who raises the dead!?!" "So what? he's always done right by us, and all those undead you see were bad creatures who would have killed us, now they help us to make our lives better". Now thats a moral delema; "yes we want to kill the necromancer, but we gotta go through all these people to do it....sigh whatever happened to the good old days when evil was evil and evil got a kick in the face just for being evil?" :D
18DELTA 09-20-07, 04:13 PM	There is allways THE BONEYARD from the UNDERDARK SUPPLEMENT. May want to check that out. The boneyard is under THESK & THE GREAT DALE though. The warlocks crypt north of waterdeep may also help. Larloch goes into stasis, his 60 liches go on warpath to retreive an artifact to relaese Larloch from stasis?
Calmar 09-21-07, 12:50 PM	THe battle of bones is also an important stronghold of the Cult of the Dragon. Maybe you want to consider to affiliate your evil mastermind with that organization? The Cult has undead, illegal operations, undead dragons and undead... SIGN UP NOW! :D
MarkusTay63 09-21-07, 02:11 PM	There is allways THE BONEYARD from the UNDERDARK SUPPLEMENT. May want to check that out. The boneyard is under THESK & THE GREAT DALE though. The warlocks crypt north of waterdeep may also help. Larloch goes into stasis, his 60 liches go on warpath to retreive an artifact to relaese Larloch from stasis?You would want a group of PCs to face 60 Liches?! What kind of inhuman monster are you?! :eek: ;) :P
1 ton ghost 09-21-07, 03:35 PM	plenty near Waterdeep. really, wherever there is alot of raw materials and relative isolation is fine. technically, one ghoul could kick start the whole thing in a small village you just keep isolated. given average Fort Save and typical peasant ignorance (it's a real bad cold billy has), you'd be swelled w/ undead quickly. it's just you might have to isolate the town or further the subterfugue, perhaps as replacing village healer, witch doctor, bonesetter, or meister. that kind of clout provides a great deal of influence/privledge.
MarkusTay63 09-21-07, 04:10 PM	Come to think of it, the entire City of the Dead inside of Waterdeep has already risen up at least once that I know of (Knight of the Living Dead). That was a fun solo-adventure, but I'm not sure about how canon it is.
18DELTA 09-21-07, 04:33 PM	You would want a group of PCs to face 60 Liches?! What kind of inhuman monster are you?! :eek: ;) :P What you act like being an INHUMAN MONSTER is a BAD thing!?;) :P :D Its not easy being EVIL!:eek: :pbbbtt: :waits:
Bonzai 09-21-07, 05:10 PM	Ooooh I like it, my hats off to you sir :bow: Would be good to add an extra little twist to that by having the townfolk stand up to the players to defend their lord. "we wont let you kill the lord who keeps our children safe and keeps us alive!" "But your lord is an evil fiend who raises the dead!?!" "So what? he's always done right by us, and all those undead you see were bad creatures who would have killed us, now they help us to make our lives better". Now thats a moral delema; "yes we want to kill the necromancer, but we gotta go through all these people to do it....sigh whatever happened to the good old days when evil was evil and evil got a kick in the face just for being evil?" :D Thats pretty much how it was. They townsfolk fear, but respect the Necromancer. He is LE, and while his laws are harsh, they are fair, and justly applied. Mothers encourage their children to study hard so that they can become Necromancers themselves, and protect the town too. Old men begging to be turned into undead, so that they might be able to help their families... Heh, the Necromancer has a hall filled with Husk Globes. Several of which are filled with Harpers and other do gooders that attempted to kill him. So any formal meetings with the Necromancer would be there, surrounded by the globes with clerics, Paladins, and minor heros. Of course, he argues that it was in self defence, as they actually attacked him first. Hehe, he was a great villian. He was actually a member of the Cult of the Dragon, and had an ambitious side project. During the year of rogue dragons, he he stockpiled dragon corpses in a cave in the Spine of the World. He has been hunting down the lost phylacteries of fallen sacred ones, and plans to restore them. With enough Dracoliches returned, in his debt, and whose phylacteries are in his posession, he intends to take over the cult and become the 3rd speaker. The players who don't want to kill him outright, have a chance at discovering his plan, and at least thwarting him that way.
Eccerion 09-28-07, 03:19 PM	The main thing about creating an undead army is: can you control it?. The bane of all would be deathlords is that they can only command so many HD worth of undead, any more simply go around doing whatever their perticular brand of undead do (which usally involves killing the living in some way). Course if precise control isnt a big deal then letting a few ghouls, shadows, vampires or what have you is a sure fire way to bring any city to its knees if you can keep the infestation a secret til its reached a point where controling or easily eliminateing it becomes impossible.
Bonzai 09-28-07, 05:53 PM	Thats the fun thing about Pale Masters. Their cap stone ability exceeds the normal control caps.
MerrikCale 09-29-07, 01:38 PM	So, if I were to select a good spot on the map for an undead army to rise and be a sufficient threat, do you have any recommendations? The Mets clubhouse. Lots of dead there
Rinonalyrna Fathomlin 09-29-07, 07:52 PM	The Mets clubhouse. Lots of dead there Or in front of computers...plenty of living dead there.;)
creyzi4zb12 10-03-07, 09:11 PM	Howabout in the heart of Shadowdale? Suppose Elminster get all f****d up with his spell and accidentally summons a gazillion undead to the Realms and finds himself trapped once again. Then when he returns he realizes that Faerun is filled with undead.
18DELTA 10-03-07, 11:32 PM	Howabout in the heart of Shadowdale? Suppose Elminster get all f****d up with his spell and accidentally summons a gazillion undead to the Realms and finds himself trapped once again. Then when he returns he realizes that Faerun is filled with undead. Looks like we go ourselves a winner folks.:bravo: