I'm thinking high level character, a few levels of cleric, a greater number of levels in rouge, and levels in Black Flame Zealot
(Complet Divine). But what do the rest of you think would be good? The more ideas the better, I have plenty of time to make her. I'd tell you more about her but I think that is copyright infringment, so check out page 69 in the Faiths of Eberron, under the Tarnished. That'll tell you all about her.
Thanks in advance for the replies and ideas!
If I were running such a plot, then it would involve Melysse attempting to get close enough to the Flame to restore her power to their previous levels. Jaela would of course be aware of the danger to some degree but would be forced to keep it hush-hush to avoid panic. She would instead use her powerful and unique abilities to create some powerful ward against Miron. Melysse would be questing after something that would circumvent those wards.
The PCs would have to work their way through Melysse's minions and track her down before she has what she needs to enter Flamekeep. Ideally, they would spoil her carefully laid plans and force her hand, resulting in a show-down in the middle of the Cathedral of the Flame. With Melysse about to sacrifice Jaela to the Demon-in-the-Flame in a ritual that would grant her the power of a 20th level cleric, the PCs burst in and engage in an epic battle. With evil cultists, demonic minions, and the Flame itself raging in the background, it should be quite the scene.
But the levels as you suggested make sense to me. As an adult with more experince than Jela, she should be capable on her own, even when not near the Flame. Black Flame Zealot is seemingly written for this role.
My first thought when I first read about Melysse Miron was that she should have a similar ability to Jaela Daran. She should have limited power away from the Flame and nearly epic power within Flamekeep.
For what it's worth, Melysse's first appearance is actually in the "Dreadhold" article in Dragon magazine, and in there she's described as having exactly this sort of power - being a cleric whose powers are dramatically increased while in Flamekeep (bear in mind that she managed to convince many people that she was the rightful Keeper of the Flame, requiring her to have some ability to mimic the powers of the true Keeper). Without getting into specifics that may be under copyright, she's actually considerably more powerful than Jaela, who is after all a young Keeper.
There's no reason you need to hold to that interpretation - but the original idea was that her powers were indeed similar to those of the Keeper of the Flame - just coming from the darkness within it.
Oh, and as an aside, per the Dreadhold article, "slumber" is a euphemism for being petrified. Many of the high-risk-but-can't-be-killed-for-some-reason (in her case, the belief that her death would result in the rise of a new anti-Keeper) prisoners in Dreadhold are petrified.
Oh, and as an aside, per the Dreadhold article, "slumber" is a euphemism for being petrified. Many of the high-risk-but-can't-be-killed-for-some-reason (in her case, the belief that her death would result in the rise of a new anti-Keeper) prisoners in Dreadhold are petrified.
Heh, sorry, just had a "frozen in carbonite" moment there.
Oh, if you do use that "showdown at Flamekeep" idea, be sure to describe the demon whispering dark thoughts to the PCs as they fight, trying to convince them that Jaela is the actual usurper, and Melysse is the true Keeper.
If you want to REALLY screw with your players' heads... have it be true.
If you want to REALLY screw with your players' heads... have it be true.
I like the way you think!
The short version of the campaign:
The party was hired on as an airship crew to provide protection for a secretive prison transfer from Sharn to Flamekeep to Dreadhold. In Sharn, the ship picked up four or five shady, low-down, obviously no-good criminal-types. Some were spellcasters who were fitted with manacles that produced personal silence effects to keep them from using spells.
At Flamekeep, we took on a single, very frightened-looking female halfling who was bound in the same type of enchanted manacles. We heard that there was some political unrest and that Cardinal Krozen was advocating for martial law and a renewed crusade against the undead legions of Karrnath.
Over the course of several written "conversations" with the halfling, my character worked out that the "halfling" was, in fact, the Speaker Jaela. Her imprisonment was a ruse; in reality, she was being sent to Dreadhold for her own protection by Silver Flame loyalists who feared for her life due to Krozen's uprising.
Somewhere over eastern Karrnath, we were ambushed by bandits on pegasi. While we were distracted, a spy on the airship's crew released the prisoners from Sharn, who in turn kidnapped Jaela and escaped with the bandits to an ancient crypt. They aparently wanted to sacrifice Jaela to raise some undead abomination. I never really was clear on this point, but the important thing is that we rescued her and continued on to Dreadhold where she met up with her loyalists and was released from her magical shackles.
While we were restocking for the trip back to Sharn, the Dreadhold guards detected an attempt to tunnel in from beneath the prison. By the time we reached the lower levels, it was too late. Whoever it was had made off with the petrified form of Melysse Tiron.
Here's where things get really sketchy, since I actually missed this session, but I'll do my best to tell you what I know. The party chased the body-snatchers across the Mror Holds and into the Talenta Plains, finally catching up with them near the border of the Mournland. Locals told us of a pool of tainted water just past the dead-gray mist that supposedly turned flesh to stone. It was reasonable to guess that the body-snatchers intended to use it in reverse. There was a big fight scene in which the party tank managed to sunder Melysse's left arm before she was thrown into the pool and sank like... well... a large, woman-shaped stone. Nothing seemed to happen...
Assuming that was that, we went about some other adventures, including disrupting the construction of a mysterious egg-shaped tower in the Mournland. Eventually, we heard that Cardinal Krozen had appointed a new Speaker (since Jaela was nowhere to be found). The new Speaker was a veteran of the Last War, or so we heard, a woman named Melissa. She had lost her left arm in combat, and it had been replaced with a warforged graft. She did not consider it a loss; in fact, she was so grateful to have it that she declared warforged to have souls in the eyes of the church and granted them full citizenship.
"Melissa" eventually declared a crusade against the undead legions of Karrnath, just as Cardinal Krozen had predicted. Armies of warforged started to appear from the Mournland and offer their services to Thrane. If anyone needed evidence that this new "Speaker" was in league with the Lord of Blades, this was it - but unfortunately, Thrane was so engulfed in the war by now that the Thranes welcomed their new warforged allies with open arms.
We spent a few sessions running missions of mercy to help the common folk caught between the two battle lines, and eventually confronted a chilling reality: Karrnath was being manipulated as well, possibly by emissaries from Riedra. The Emerald Claw was also taking advantage of the chaos to bring the Blood of Vol back to power.
The DM says the plan was to confront each "boss" - the Lord of Blades, Lady Vol, Melysse Tiron, and an epic-level Quori mindbender - in a series of increasingly epic battles. Unfortunately, one of our players took a job in Taiwan, so we had to cut the campaign short.
Instead of taking down everyone, we managed to break in to a high-level meeting between Melysse and Lady Vol. Our psion used multiple empowered, overchanneled flame bursts to barbecue Melysse, while our warforged juggernaut pinned Lady Vol to the floor so that my cleric could lay an augmented heal on her that dealt somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 positive energy damage. We - quite accidentally - recovered the amulet with which Lady Vol was able to manipulate King Kaius, and returned to Korth to release him from his imprisonment during a private audience, thus ending the war.
Epic Win, if I do say so myself. :D
Thanks for reading this far (if you have). This game was a lot of fun to play in (despite being side-tracked by a few jerk players whom we had to send packing). Hopefully it's given you a few ideas for your own campaign.
Make her a 4th level Black Flame Zealot, so that this grants her the Dimension Door ability, and makes it even harder for the PCs to stop her if they screw up and can't keep her from killing someone.