Something has come up in my Savage Tide campaign. One of the PCs is a chaotic evil character, who has by now sacrificed two clerics of Loviatar to Malcanthet. This is not the Loviatar from Forgotten Realms. I have based her on Loviatar from the 1st edition Deities and demigods. I am using my own campaign world. My Loviatar is LE and has pain and cold as domains.
The problem is when 2 of your clerics are sacrificed to the queen of succubi, you as a goddess take notice. Especially when one of the clerics was level 9 and was investigating the murder of the second cleric. Moreover, this level 9 cleric had done a commune about this murder. An extra problem Loviatar has, is that her faith is illegal at the moment and she is losing believers, so her power is not what it used to be.
Where would she fit in the Savage Tide? And what would she do against the offending CE character? Or against Malcanthet, for that matter?
I was thinking of using cold-themed undead (the Farshore graveyard has not been upgraded yet by casting hallow), but there I ran into problems. To begin with, the murdered victims cannot come back, as their souls belong to Malcanthet now. In the descriptions of most undead (e.g. the revenant) they have some kind of soul or spirit which cannot find eternal rest, and is therefore somehow still tied to the body. So these bodies cannot return as undead, since Malcanthet owns their souls. This also rules out any incorporeal undead, since they count as souls (e.g. as described in Book of Vile Darkness).
I was thinking along the lines of undead created by the pure malignancy of the deed, so not having a soul or spirit, but being malevolence incarnated. These undead exist, but these are usually not the type that have the body of a deceased (e.g. nightwings, etc.)
So I have the following problems/questions:
Does anyone know of an undead or a template which conforms to this above-mentioned description, namely having the body, but not the spirit of the deceased? Preferably cold- or pain-themed?
Otherwise, what would be a good explanation that these bodies can become undead when their souls are not present, preferably an explanation the players can discover during the game?
What would Loviatar's position be in the politics of the Savage Tide?
What would be other ways in which she can further her own agenda/take her revenge on the offending character?
Any suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks in advance for your time and ideas.
Otherwise, what would be a good explanation that these bodies can become undead when their souls are not present, preferably an explanation the players can discover during the game?
Simple: the undead sent are sent by Loviatar herself, or a planar servant (given her LE alignment, I'd say some sort of devil - Erinyes is a likely choice, as is Kyton/Chain Devil and Pain Devil [Fiendish Codex II], but also check the books for a mid-level one with necromancy spells as SLA's or give the critter levels in Wizard [Necromancer] or Cleric) rather than actually being the returned spirits of the slain. Even better if said servant snatched up locals' souls, killed in the chaos of the preparation for the invasion or the invasion itself, to fuel the process - torturing an innocent soul to fuel an undead vengeance machine? YES PLEASE!
What would Loviatar's position be in the politics of the Savage Tide?
Ironically, if she was aware of Demogorgon's plans, she'd probably be highly opposed to the idea of him gaining more power or spreading more insanity on the Prime. She's on the opposite side of the Blood War, after all, being LE and likely allied with the Baatezu. Had the players not targeted her servants for sacrifice, they might have been able to make an ally of her fairly easily.
However, if the players tick her off enough, she might be too blinded by her annoyance with them to think through the proper response to this much more devastating situation. OR, she might not - she is a deity after all, she's got much longer to look at the situation than the PCs do.
What would be other ways in which she can further her own agenda/take her revenge on the offending character?
Your group is still in Farshore, so this is my suggestion: The Monks in Scuttlecove.
Scuttlecove is an excellent place for an illegal religion's adherents to hang out, possibly even publicly. Likely some of the monks could also work as assassins, and are probably led by actual Clerics rather than Ur-Priests as the monks in the original story are.
That's all I have first thing in the morning, I might have something more later after I'm more awake :)
Simple: the undead sent are sent by Loviatar herself, or a planar servant (given her LE alignment, I'd say some sort of devil - Erinyes is a likely choice, as is Kyton/Chain Devil and Pain Devil [Fiendish Codex II], but also check the books for a mid-level one with necromancy spells as SLA's or give the critter levels in Wizard [Necromancer] or Cleric) rather than actually being the returned spirits of the slain. Even better if said servant snatched up locals' souls, killed in the chaos of the preparation for the invasion or the invasion itself, to fuel the process - torturing an innocent soul to fuel an undead vengeance machine? YES PLEASE!
Yes, kytons and pain devils are a good idea. But think of the consequences that would have, especially when these devils arrive during the attack of the Crimson fleet. If these devils see the vrocks, they might be tempted to attack them directly, and then Loviatar runs the risk of making the prime material plane a battlefield for the blood war. It will surely ravage this world, since Demogorgon will not leave the threat of devils unanswered. But even if these devils arrive before the attack, then Demogorgon will not take kindly to this. So far, the Isle of Dread (and I think he will include the surrounding islands) is his domain, and he will certainly not want any devils there. Would Loviatar want this to escalate, especially if her position is so weak at the moment?
Ironically, if she was aware of Demogorgon's plans, she'd probably be highly opposed to the idea of him gaining more power or spreading more insanity on the Prime. She's on the opposite side of the Blood War, after all, being LE and likely allied with the Baatezu. Had the players not targeted her servants for sacrifice, they might have been able to make an ally of her fairly easily.
However, if the players tick her off enough, she might be too blinded by her annoyance with them to think through the proper response to this much more devastating situation. OR, she might not - she is a deity after all, she's got much longer to look at the situation than the PCs do.
It is one PC especially. The irony is that the player was briefly thinking of making his character a follower of Loviatar before the start of the campaign. She would be a potential ally. However, since this is only one PC who sacrificed her clerics, she thinks she could take out this PC and leave the rest to find a new group member. Then they would not be weakened too much and still be able to defeat Demogorgon. She sees it as the standard risk adventurers run, so then she can get away with it.
Your group is still in Farshore, so this is my suggestion: The Monks in Scuttlecove.
Scuttlecove is an excellent place for an illegal religion's adherents to hang out, possibly even publicly. Likely some of the monks could also work as assassins, and are probably led by actual Clerics rather than Ur-Priests as the monks in the original story are.
Yes, good idee. Of course! Especially since there are a lot of illegal faiths at the moment in my campaign world. (They are hunted by a sort of inquisition.) They could have a perfect hideout in Scuttlecove, which makes for all sorts of nice complications there. I was planning to use The Porphyry House Horror as well, so the PCs will probably stay in Scuttlecove somewhat longer. Time enough to get them in all sorts of tricky situations.
That's all I have first thing in the morning, I might have something more later after I'm more awake :)
Even so, your ideas got me thinking already.
Still the idea appeals to me to do something with the graveyard. Some kind of evil device hidden there, which awakes the dead? It can be hidden by the planar servant (in a subtle way, so as not to provoke Demogorgon). Scuttlecove can come later. Probably Loviatar has more than one plan. And in Scuttlecove she can probably send devils without directly provoking Demogorgon.
If IMC a LE goddess realized a queen of succubi had an agent in a party involved in something that seems this important to the blood war, I think her first reaction would be to plant an agent of her own - either infiltrating the party with an agent or seducing one of the team members. And not necessarily sexually - a dream visit and an offer of cool, cold, painful powers could work just as well.
Of course, this depends on how you play Loviatar - is she more of an evil amazon warrior, a sorceress, or a schemer?
She is a schemer allright. And this is a good idea, but this would have to be an NPC. Since the group consists of 3 neutrals and 3 evils, we started the campaign with some rules about group coherence. One of the rules was that the players would not have the characters conspire against each other, and the other was that I would not introduce plot lines where the PCs would be set against each other.
The other problem is a cleric with the knowledge domain, who investigates just about everyone and everything. She managed to scan the whole crew of the Sea Wyvern and the Blue Nixie at the start of SWW. Luckily some of the NPCs had good saving throws (and she only checked the NPCs she knew were present, so she did not check for stowaways). She also makes effective use of clairaudience/clairvoyance and uses true seeing quite a lot.
So that would have to be a very clever agent, with lots of clever ways to hide his or her identity. Or a very blatant one, but I think the rest of the group cannot be convinced to accept an agent of Loviatar, since they are much too loyal to each other (and they know one of them is an agent of Malcanthet).
But perhaps the agent can be an animal, or even an item? Or something else that is not directly associated with an agent of Loviatar?
But perhaps the agent can be an animal, or even an item? Or something else that is not directly associated with an agent of Loviatar?
A magic item that serves as a focus for someone spying on the party - letting them get around/get a bonus to getting around anti-scrying defenses, etc. - and still serves as useful for the party until they find out what it does? Should be easy for a roguish, magical, or Trickster cleric agent to slip that into the loot somewhere then vacate the scene before the PCs arrive.
Yes, something like that. Or Loviatar should possess one of the cohorts. They have two.