Good morning, all. I'm currently brainstorming some ideas for the Lonely Warrior in my Mythic Kingmaker game. My group is at level 3/4 and mythic tier 1 right now. I'd like to turn the Lonely Barrow into an encounter worthy of a mythic trial to get my PCs to second tier.
My other goals:
1) Foreshadow the Talonquake a little bit.
2) Expose players to a little bit of the Lonely Warrior's backstory.
3) As always, create a fun, challenging, memorable encounter.
Here are my thoughts so far:
Revised Lonely Barrow:
Entryway. I want to keep the swarm of bats, for atmosphere if nothing else. On the walls, carvings of typical village life will be replaced with carvings of people at war, including one warrior in particular, wielding a mighty scimitar. This warrior was entombed in the barrow (according to the carvings). Just inside the entryway will be a haunt: This is where the Lonely Warrior slew his brother for stealing the Lonely Blade. The haunt manifests as loud crying. Any PC who fails his Will save will be affected by Crushing Despair for three minutes. The loud crying will also disturb the bat swarms roosting in the ceiling. After the bat battle is over, the Lonely Warrior's brother (now a faint shade, noncombatant) will say, "Tell him I'm sorry." If the PCs want to dispel the haunt, they should carry to the Lonely Warrior his brother's apologies.
If there is a battle here, skeletons elsewhere in the barrow will make Perception checks once every round (I'll settle DC later). If they pass the check, they'll make their way to the entry to see what's going on.
Main hall. The trap will be replaced with another haunt. This one's a bit more subtle. Just a howl of anger... and that's it. Any player who fails his save will be faced with Sow Thought: he believes one of the other PCs has stolen something very valuable from him. Defeating the Lonely Warrior will dispel this haunt.
Side chambers. I'll likely replace these skeletons with mythic skeletons dual-wielding scimitars.
Lonely Warrior's Chamber. The Lonely Warrior is pissed that somebody has broken into his resting place to steal the Lonely Blade. Depending on how hammy the GM is feeling, the Warrior may rant about how he needs the Lonely Blade because only he can protect the people. Two or three rounds in, the Lonely warrior will call his "guards." These will be three skeleton warriors who will assemble themselves from various bits of bone lying around the area.
Misc. changes here: The Lonely Blade will be a broken +2 fey bane scimitar (matching the Baroness's weapon preference). The Lonely Warrior himself will be restatted with the Agile mythic template, and his feat selection will include Dodge and Mobility. During combat, he's going to move quickly from one PC to the next, taking advantage of flanking opportunities with his skeletal warriors. He will fight to the death, but he's also going to move around a lot, even to the point of retreating to other areas of the barrow and hiding.
If players flee the barrow, he won't pursue .... for now. But the Lonely Warrior may leave his resting place to see what has happened in the land he once defended.
Thoughts? Concerns?
One thought: How much should I tell my players about haunts ahead of time? My initial thought is simply to let them make a Knowledge (religion) roll to identify it and give info then.
My players are still early in Stolen Lands, but I already planned to have the magic weapon become intelligent (possessed with the spirit of the Lonely Warrior) upon the destruction of the Warrior's body. I haven't considered the powers and such, it's just a thought for now.
The spirit possessing the weapon could seek vengeance and sometimes acts as a cursed weapon. This could lead to a quest to put to spirit to rest, thus de-cursing the weapon (and maybe get an additionnal +1 or weapon property in the process...).
The mythic trial could, in fact, to put the spirit to rest by having the Warrior forgive his brother. Destroying his skeletal body could or could not be the optimal way to achieve this goal.
Chuck, I really, really like that idea. And you make me think I've been going about this the wrong direction. I was looking at mechanical stuff, then adding story. How about this:
The Lonely Warrior's Story:
The Lonely Warrior was a warleader among his people, holding back evil/dark fey who tried to invade the land and enslave his people. The Lonely Warrior eventually died in combat with the Talonquake, a legendary fey owlbear.
Sometime after his death, the Lonely Warrior's brother, now leader of their community, sought his tomb and took the blade because the dark fey threatened his people. The brother took the blade from his brother's resting place, but the Lonely Warrior's spirit was disturbed and rose from his barrow.
The Lonely Warrior journeyed across the Stolen Lands to his brother's village. Even as the village was under attack by fey, the Lonely Warrior, only caring about his weapon, closed in on his brother, slew him, and took the blade.
Since then, the Lonely Blade has rested in the barrow. Occasionally, heroes have heard of this powerful blade and sought to claim it for their own, but few could survive the Lonely Warrior's Barrow.
Mythic Trial:
To complete their mythic trial, the players must face down the Lonely Warrior and reconcile his spirit with his brother's spirit.
The Lonely Warrior: The Lonely Warrior caern wight is actually a manifestation of the warrior's covetousness. By defeating the wight in combat, the players free the Lonely Warrior's better nature, which has long been subsumed inside his greed. When the wight is slain, the Lonely Warrior's "good" side will manifest as a spirit living within the Lonely Blade. This spirit makes it very clear that it wants to forgive its brother.
Reconciliation: To reconcile the brothers, the PCs must journey to the site of their village, bring the two spirits together, and accomplish what neither brother could do in life: Drive the fey out of the village so that it is once again safe. And where might that village be? Well, that village is now known as the Forgotten Keep.[/b]
Trial Crunch:
(Pardon the lack of stat blocks and such. I'm still spitballing)
I'm going to remove the Crushing Despair haunt from the Lonely Barrow and move it to the Forgotten Keep, but I'll leave in the Sow Thought haunt. I want my players to have a sense of the history, and I think the combination of haunt, heiroglyphics, and a monologuing caern wight ought to convey some of it.
When the wight is defeated, the players will have in their possession the Lonely Blade, a broken +2 cold iron scimitar. The Lonely Warrior's spirit will reside in the blade. It will be an intelligent weapon, and it will often urge the PC carrying it to find the brother so they can make peace. If the blade leaves the Stolen Lands with the spirit still in it (i.e., the players sell the weapon), it WILL come back in the hands of somebody helping it to its purpose.
Also, attempting to mend the blade will not work. Neither spell nor hammer can restore the broken weapon. As long as the affection between the Lonely Warrior and his brother is broken, so too shall the Lonely Blade be broken.
Reconciling the brothers: I'm going to treat this as a skill challenge of sorts. The players must bring the Lonely Blade to the brother's grave in the Forgotten Keep. There, the spirits of the two will manifest. To get the brothers to reconcile, the players will need to use Diplomacy or other skills on both brothers to get them to forgive each other. Collectively, the players will need to get four successes (between the two brothers) on these rolls before three failures. The players will get an automatic two successes on this skill challenge if they have defeated the Dancing Lady and other fey at the Forgotten Keep before attempting to reconcile the brothers.
Side note: At the outset, the brother's spirit will tell the players that he wants to see the fey driven from his home. It will be up to the players whether they want to drive out the fey or attempt reconciliation first.
Reward: If the players succeed in reconciling the brothers, then the the Lonely Blade will lose its intelligence, as the Lonely Warrior's spirit, now at peace, leaves for his place in eternity. However, the blade will also reforge itself (losing the broken condition) and become a +2 fey bane cold iron scimitar. The PCs will also gain a mythic tier.
Failure: If the players cannot reconcile the brothers, they must wait a month before they can attempt reconciliation. Also, skill DCs will be +5, meaning that the PCs will have a harder time if they re-attempt the trial. If players fail at reconciliation, the Lonely Blade will become sullen and function as a broken -2 cold iron scimitar when used.
Other order:
If the players do the Forgotten Keep first, then they will no doubt encounter the despair haunt, and the Lonely Warrior's brother. If they're their, the Lonely Warrior's brother will want them to defeat the Dancing Lady, and he will state that his brother was buried with a weapon that could be useful in the fight.
I like it, I think it accomplishes what you want and I think it's a sufficient test and challenge.
I personally completely rewrote the Lonely Warrior's story, turning him into a leader of Tengu who had wandered into the region in ancient times, and tying his backstory to Vordakai as foreshadowing (to play into V's whole Ravens and Crows theme). Some more of his underlings will be mummies and other undead in V's lair.
I think a detail that may be overlooked: why is it broken? Did Talonquake do that?
I will muse on this some more. IMC, the group recovered the map from the previous adventuring band who died in the owlbear's lair, but did not seek out the tomb.
I'd think you also want to play up that fey incursions are a regular occurrence around here? (N. sending minions to recover her sword?) Maybe the Warrior should mention that he's turned back fey treasure hunters, too. "Your ears aren't pointy, but you're still thieves!"
IMC, Talonquake is emphatically not going to enter until the final act. I'm building Talonquake into challenging mythic-level menace suitable to close out the module. If my players explore his lair before his grand entrance, they'll find a truly massive fey owlbear in temporal stasis.
As far as why the Lonely Blade is broken ... I haven't thought to that. My first thought is that it is broken because of the rift between the two brothers.
Your idea about the LW yelling about pointy-eared thieves is a good one. I may even drop a hint about a "menace from beyond" from one of the brothers before they fade.
IMC, I had a big murial in the Lonely Warriors chamber depicting a big battle with several cyclopes.
The warrior and his hordes were enslaved by the cyclopes and used as cannon fodder on their way west trying to conquer the River Kingdoms.
How about you change that to the Lonely Warrior leading the hordes on his own and Talonquake being put onto the battlefield by an enclave of druids/wizards/fey (hint, hint) as their champion.
Since T is mythic having all this happen a long time ago shouldn't be a problem. Have the blade be broken in this battle between the warrior and T. His brother could have changed sides just before the final confrontation betraying the route/day by which his brother thought to cross a river/cross the mountains/conquer a strategic hill.
I also had two skeleton champions fighter 2 accompany the Lonely Warrior as guardians and the slap of stone as final resting place was changed into a chariot with 2 horses (one of those has become the pally's bonded mount via intervention of his goddess).
