OK my new 4e campaign is being set in the Lake Dark region of Karrnath, quite a mysterious and sinister place with a lot of "wilderness" etc.
Im planning on having the usual bad guys for the region - Emerald Claw- be a constant pain in the butt for the party but id also really like to have the Lake itself feature, especially as the game progresses to higher levels.
Im thinking along the lines of something to do with the Lords of Dust and im "fishing" (pun intended) for ideas involving the Lake.
Id appreciate any input/ideas you may have.
Regards...
last time we discussed it (here) :
Lake Dark is said to house an incredibly powerful creature, which Vol is trying to raise and control. Emerald Claw members all around Khorvaire are collecting Khyber shards for this "Plan Leviathan". It might be a bound rajah, others on the forums have thought it might be the location of the Tarrasque.
Or, for a twist, have the plot succeed andthe PCs burst on scene just as it is culminating. They defeat the cultists in a climactic battle just as the final wards are broken, and the monstrosity everyone has been afraid of rises. The PCs huddle together for protection, battered and at the end of their wits . . . and up comes a beautiful woman (or handsome man, sorry AP if I'm being sexist :P ). Somehow Vol managed to call back a person who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago. Since Vol's servants don't currently control the shards that bind her, she isn't being controlled- yet. It's up to you who she is, but I think it would be cool if she were an ancient champion of good that foiled Vol at some time in the ancient past, and wielded some power that Vol desperately needs to remake the mark of death. The PCs can befriend her, but there is constantly the possibility that Vol regains control of her at some future date. She is afraid that Vol will force her to restore the Mark of death and accomplish great evil with her unique powers- and if that ever happens, the PCs will have to fight against her.
Sorry, longer post than I intended but maybe it jogs an idea. I also like the idea of the soarwhale graveyard, gotta put that in somewhere :D .
Lake Dark is where old Soarwhales go to die ;)
last time we discussed it (here) :
Oops sorry folks i must be a bit of a senile old soarwhale myself i honestly dont remember having the discussion and I started it
If Vol is really trying to bind the creature that lives within Lake Dark, it's not a Rakhasa Rajah. I was under the impression that Vol is actually intelligent, and not stupid enough to think that she can bind and use a Rajah for her own ends. Besides, aren't the Rajahs supposed to be already bound within Khyber shards anyway?
Vol's father was a dragon. She may know the spells that bind rajahs. Or she may not even know it is a Rajah, just that something is there.
....and how did she find out about this being bound under the lake?
A long, convoluted line that traces itself back to.....the Lords of Dust! :evillaugh
Ooo. "There is a being of incredible power bound in the lake, and I can use its power to fufill my goals!"
....and how did she find out about this being bound under the lake?
A long, convoluted line that traces itself back to.....the Lords of Dust! :evillaugh
ooh consider that suitabley swiped !
Ultimately, the party will find themselves at the centre of the frozen lake, the black coffin jutting up through the fractured ice, its lid standing open as unholy magics reach out from within. Wave after wave of dozens of undead minions will shamble toward it, drawn across the lake from the cold earth beyond its shore, and if one actually makes it into the coffin, the Lady's dark spirit will be given a body in which to be reborn as a lich (should the party be smart enough to set up a minion-blender sustainable zone on the coffin, I'll have a couple of undead cultists with some hitpoints on them ready to try to dive in). If she's revived (likely), the party will have to fight her and finish off the minions while she uses a 5, 6 recharge ability that transforms a target minion into a much more formidable undead foe.
So that's what I'm doing with Lake Dark.
Would you have any stats etc generated that youd be willing to share ?
Since the party in my campaign just busted an Emerald Claw slave operation that was forcing 'soulless' Warforged to mine khyber shards
Just wondering, If they are 'soulless' doesn't it makes them machines/tools, which make this a legitimate mining operations and not slavery? (or are they originally regular sentient Warforged?)
Ultimately, the party will find themselves at the centre of the frozen lake, the black coffin jutting up through the fractured ice, its lid standing open as unholy magics reach out from within...
Good Karrnathi themed encounter which combines well with the Dolurrh manifestation zone in the lake.
Which gives me an idea for my campaign: since my PCs may journey into the Shadowfell rift - I can have them exist back to Eberron on the bottom of Lake Dark (Endurance skill checks for pressure, holding breath, cold and THEN they need to break the surface ice...)
Just wondering, If they are 'soulless' doesn't it makes them machines/tools, which make this a legitimate mining operations and not slavery? (or are they originally regular sentient Warforged?)
I think he was talking about the fact that people on Eberron don't believe Warforged have souls, hence why many consider them living tools/weapons, not because they have had the soul taken out.
And that sir is one of the single most coolest ideas ive read on the forums - thanks so much for sharing.
No problem! For what it's worth, I stole the Countess' backstory from Elizabeth Báthory, the Blood Countess of Hungarian history and legend (who I first learned of through Diablo II's interpretation of her evil). The dynamic of the final battle, with the minions trying to reach the coffin in order to let the big bad manifest, I stole from an episode of Buffy, which used a mask the zombie had to put on instead of a coffin. It's like that saying I made up all on my own says; good writers borrow, great writers steal. :D
Would you have any stats etc generated that youd be willing to share ?
I didn't when I posted the idea, but since I'm probably going to be running it in three days,
I suppose I should get cracking.
The party's level 7 right now, probably level 8 by the time they get to the Countess. They've just had two Ginormous Combats Of Awesome in a row, so I'll throw them a few easy fights with at-level foes against reflavoured Deathpriests of Orcus and Crimson Acolytes (MM p. 210). The leader of the mining camp they destroyed, a wizard named Astor who was killed and then burned, will be back as one of many Flameskulls (MM p. 109). Some Battle Wights (MM p. 262) should make good undead servitors, and I'll add five levels to the Zombie Rotter (MM p. 274) for the corpses shambling across the lake, which will turn into Zombie Hulks (MM p. 275) when the Lady of Sorrow buffs them. The Lady herself will probably be the Lich (MM p. 176) in the book, adjusted down to level 10 or 11.
As for the particulars of story, the Countess was performing horrific arcane experiments, trying to create a race of 'living undead'; essentially, Necropolitan-types who could actually breed. It was her hope to transform herself into such a creature, becoming a fitting vessel for Vol (the nature of whom she didn't fully understand) to join with her and resurrect the Mark of Death.
The party, who don't know when or where the ritual to resurrect the Countess will take place, will be kicked into urgency when cultists try to steal back the chest full of khyber shards they claimed from the camp (Speak With Dead and View Object; not just for PCs any more). I picture a cool sequence wherein the cultists, flying in sky skiffs that use Sharn's manifest zone, fire enormous grapnels at the party's airship and, while expendable undead fight them on the deck, the party has to dislodge the grapnels before the skiffs steer them straight into a tower. Anyway, the cultists don't know where the ritual is either, but they know it's happening in $Travel_Time+1 days. The party arcanist will pour on the skull sweat, combine arcana checks with history checks in a dramatic library skill challenge, and figure out that the only possible place is Lake Dark.
Since the party has an airship, I'll have to find a way to force them to ground so they can't just fly straight to the ritual at the centre of the lake. I'll probably just say the weather gets more unnavigable the closer they get to the lake, and they'll have to set down if they don't want to crash into it.
As for the particulars of story, the Countess was performing horrific arcane experiments, trying to create a race of 'living undead'; essentially, Necropolitan-types who could actually breed. It was her hope to transform herself into such a creature, becoming a fitting vessel for Vol (the nature of whom she didn't fully understand) to join with her and resurrect the Mark of Death.
The party, who don't know when or where the ritual to resurrect the Countess will take place, will be kicked into urgency when cultists try to steal back the chest full of khyber shards they claimed from the camp (Speak With Dead and View Object; not just for PCs any more). I picture a cool sequence wherein the cultists, flying in sky skiffs that use Sharn's manifest zone, fire enormous grapnels at the party's airship and, while expendable undead fight them on the deck, the party has to dislodge the grapnels before the skiffs steer them straight into a tower. Anyway, the cultists don't know where the ritual is either, but they know it's happening in $Travel_Time+1 days. The party arcanist will pour on the skull sweat, combine arcana checks with history checks in a dramatic library skill challenge, and figure out that the only possible place is Lake Dark.
Since the party has an airship, I'll have to find a way to force them to ground so they can't just fly straight to the ritual at the centre of the lake. I'll probably just say the weather gets more unnavigable the closer they get to the lake, and they'll have to set down if they don't want to crash into it.
Since the party has an airship, I'll have to find a way to force them to ground so they can't just fly straight to the ritual at the centre of the lake. I'll probably just say the weather gets more unnavigable the closer they get to the lake, and they'll have to set down if they don't want to crash into it.
Lake Dark is where old Soarwhales go to die
SteelMirror's Sky Whales in Eberron
Here is a solution:
A Lonely old Soarwhale have departed from his herd in the Talenta Plains and his making it's final voyage to die in the waters of Lake Dark (some small flock of Wyverns follows him in the distance hoping for an easy kill).
Like others of his kind he fly under the cover of the clouds. The PC's unwary Airship nearly misses it above the lake (skill checks to detect it in time, avoid collision?).
Elder Soarwhale have a natural aura (some will say a defensive mechanism) the aura causes Soarwood to temporary lose its levitating attribute (like two opposite waves canceling each other out). Which will cause the PCs airship to drop down to the Lake.
[Insert the Countess encounter here]
Optional pulp encounter end to be used as deus ex machina in cause of unavoidable total party kill - the Lich goes into a lengthily monolog (before killing the PCs) - then the Soarwhale free fall on her location and kills her in a huge water and ice splash.
So her plans aren't always "thought through".
The Lords of Dust are like Kevin Bacon. There's always a line back to them.
Hahahahahaha. Nice.
Since the party in my campaign just busted an Emerald Claw slave operation that was forcing 'soulless' Warforged to mine khyber shards, I decided to hook it up to the 'Operation Leviathan' plot hook. Thing is, I really don't want to have them fight anything to which the term 'leviathan' would be applicable, so I created a little 'forbidden lore' story about a Karrnathi countess whose sinister rites in the name of Vol were so unspeakable that she was sealed in an iron coffin and buried in secret so that she could never be resurrected. Now the Emerald Claw has discovered the whereabouts of that black coffin (at the bottom of Lake Dark) and intend to resurrect Viviss, the Lady of Sorrow, in order to secure control of the nation.
Ultimately, the party will find themselves at the centre of the frozen lake, the black coffin jutting up through the fractured ice, its lid standing open as unholy magics reach out from within. Wave after wave of dozens of undead minions will shamble toward it, drawn across the lake from the cold earth beyond its shore, and if one actually makes it into the coffin, the Lady's dark spirit will be given a body in which to be reborn as a lich (should the party be smart enough to set up a minion-blender sustainable zone on the coffin, I'll have a couple of undead cultists with some hitpoints on them ready to try to dive in). If she's revived (likely), the party will have to fight her and finish off the minions while she uses a 5, 6 recharge ability that transforms a target minion into a much more formidable undead foe.
So that's what I'm doing with Lake Dark.
Yeah, I might have to steal that meself.....bravo