Hey all! So, my players have just crossed the Tors of Levenies and are beginning to explore the abandoned city of Varnhold. The crossing of the mountains was made quite difficult by the previous character of one of my players, named Aleksi, who turned villainous after he began researching necromancy, engineered a civil war for personal gain and was driven from the kingdom. I have since then taken over control of Aleksi and am trying to craft him into an antagonist second only to Nyrissa in importance to the plot line.
Aside from being stalked by a wendigo, all opposition through Varnhold pass reeked of Aleksi's plots, with the undead template being applied to the VV module's roc and a tribe of stone giants holding the pass against the party. The stone giant leader had been taught necromancy by Aleksi to enslave their ogre rivals. (I borrowed heavily from Rise of the Runelords for this portion. Barl Breakbones was the stone giant necromancer, the Headless Lord was also present, and they had captured Fort Rannick, which in this setting was established by Varnhold to keep the pass open against these same giants and ogres.)
Anyway, the PCs are through the Tors and have entered Varnhold. After surviving redcap ambushes through the empty streets, they're about to handle the spriggans in the fort and will presumably follow the course of the module by encountering the centaurs and eventually tracking down Vordakai's tomb. Thing is, Aleksi has been out here for a while and has already uncovered quite a few secrets ahead of the players. He discovered Vordakai's tomb and, rather than bring down the lich's waking wrath on himself, visited Varnhold in disguise and started a rumor of treasures within the tomb. This led to the module's course of Willas Gundarson stealing the "bracelet" and bringing doom to Varnhold, only in this iteration Gundarson was tricked into it.
After Vordakai vanishes Varnhold (alliteration!) Aleksi presents himself, claiming credit for awakening the lich and offering his assistance. After all, Aleksi himself is a brilliant man who, having until recently been a ruler in the PC kingdom, possesses connections and knowledge of the outside world that Vordakai could make use of.
Of course, Aleksi does this not out of respect or awe for Vordakai. Aleski does nothing that would not benefit himself. Truthfully he covets Vordakai's knowledge as well as his Oculus of Abaddon. (While Aleksi was still a PC, the player purchased an Eye of the Void from their kingdom's lively wondrous item trade. Later on, during Aleksi's violent exile from the kingdom, another PC put out one of his eyes. So of course what else was he to do but place the Eye of the Void into his empty socket? The Oculus of Abaddon would be quite an upgrade if he could wrest it from Vordakai in betrayal.)
Further, I've expanded the extraplanar conflict around the Ghost Stone. Now, rather than one phase spider and four xills, the Ghost Stone stands in the middle of a remote valley where an all-out war between xills and phase spiders has broken over into the material plane and raged on for centuries. The xills and phase spiders seem focused on controlling the Stone and slaying one another and in all the ages of their conflict have never taken it beyond the valley, which Varnholders have taken to calling Hell's Ditch. This is of course an inaccurate name, as the Ghost Stone connects not to Hell but to the Ethereal Plane.
Before even discovering Vordakai's tomb, Aleksi's interest was piqued by rumors of this tumultuous valley. He is a brilliant academic and wizard, so I expect that he would have found a way to bypass the otherworldly combat that surrounds the Ghost Stone and study its properties.
So here's where I get to the point of my post: I don't want Aleski to go down with Vordakai. He will be an ally to Vordakai, but only as far as it suits him. He is there purely to learn (and steal) what he can from the ancient lich in return for his own knowledge of the outside world. He can tell Vordakai much about the PCs. But betraying Vordakai to the PCs for amnesty once they close in on the tomb is not an option. The PCs despise Aleksi and want his head on a spike. There will be no chance for bargaining. So here's what I have vaguely figured so far: Aleksi has hedged his bets and somehow figured out the Ghost Stone enough to devise some form of failsafe.
Aleksi will be encountered in Vordaki's tomb, in W23, the Feasthall. He is not himself undead and is not eating anyone's brain but is rather eating a civilized, candlelit meal of conjured food at the table, sitting nonchalantly alongside the arranged corpses as if at a banquet. Aleksi is powerful but it's not his style to engage directly. He's a manipulator and simply considers himself above getting his hands dirty, so this won't be a boss fight if I can help it. He'll immediately resort to his Ghost Stone contingency.
Keeping in mind that this is not made possible by Aleksi's actual spells and that I'm simply providing him with a DM macguffin, this is the concept I've been working with:
Aleksi has forged something of a deadman's switch on the Ghost Stone and if the players make any move on him, he'd promise to trigger it and destroy the stone or simply sever its link to the Ethereal realm. This will break the force that keeps the xills and phase spiders anchored within the bounds of the valley and though still frenzied for battle, it will deprive them of the motivation to fight each other for control of the Stone. I've made sure that the PC's are well aware of the valley of Hell's Ditch (rumors throughout their kingdom have been overblown to say that it's a second Worldwound ready to burst open) and Aleksi's threat to turn its otherworldly hordes on the outside world should give them pause.
But the finer points of this scheme is where I turn to you, the community:
-How would Aleksi have gotten close to the Ghost Stone to work his machinations, I wonder? It's literally surrounded in a valley roiling with otherworldly warfare.
-Could said machinations on the Ghost Stone actually be explained and legitimized by in-game spells or will I simply have to rely on "because the DM said so" to make it work?
-The PCs REEEEAAAALLY wanna kill Aleksi, so hotter heads may prevail and they could attack anyway. It'd be neat to unleash an Ethereal horde on the countryside but my primary objective is to keep Aleksi alive for the endgame. (Simply keeping him out of the way until then is too boring and not an option) Perhaps there is a plan B I could devise or something else to compliment the first plan and lay on the deterrence real thick?
-How might Aleksi escape with the Oculus of Abaddon or return to steal it for himself after Vordakai's defeat? If the player's arrival does not force Aleksi into abandoning Vordakai and rather he makes his move first and betrays Vordakai, I can can always simply buff up Vordakai to compensate for his lack of an eye to keep him a challenge when he is later encountered. Further, what other spells, items or bits of secret knowledge might Aleksi steal/learn from Vordakai and escape with?
-And finally, should Aleksi's gambit work and they begrudgingly allow him to leave in one piece, he will continue his work with the still-intact Ghost Stone by whatever means. Through his drive for forbidden knowledge and his wish to avoid the interference of the PCs, Aleksi will use the Ghost Stone to pass over into the Ethereal Realm. I'm unsure if it's quite this way in Pathfinder canon but in my game the Ethereal Realm is a crossroads specifically between the First World, the Material Plane, and the Shadow Plane. Aleksi will find his way into the Shadow Plane, drawn by the necromantic energies that lie at its heart, and it is here that he will encounter his newest tutor/ally/patron; Count Ranalc.
A connection with Count Ranalc of course positively hums with possibilities to bridge over into Nyrissa's plotline, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. If anyone has any ideas building off of his collaboration with Aleksi I would be delighted to hear them. (I'm unsure if its canon that Ranalc has met some unknown fate and vanished, but in my game he is still active but simply exiled to the Shadow Plane.)
Obviously I can't provide you guys with the entire context of my game and have you know every possible point that may be relevant to Aleksi's schemes. But I run pretty open-ended games, drop, edit or add lore and canon to my world and have been known to rule by "because the DM said that's what happens" to move along the plot. So I'm open to any range of ideas. Thanks!
What if dying is part of Aleksi's plan? He could have a contingency spell that takes his corpse to the Ghost Stone, and there, Count Renalc resurrects him.
As some sort of shadowy outsider or fey, no less? It's a near-immortality, without the headaches or vulnerabilities of lichdom - which he'll see first-hand the downsides of while dealing with Vordakai.
I think having this villan count on his ghost stone bomb to discourage the PCs to attack him is a bad plan. The PCs will likely attack him anyway.
I know, it's an awful risk. But I have hope for my PC's thinking it through.
I've already stranded them on this side of the Tors, with a blizzard blocking off the pass behind them (that damn wendigo) and capture a certainty in now-Surtova-held Rostland should they attempt to loop around the northern end. I did it basically to cut them off from their kingdom and force them to be real adventurers again for a while. I was getting a little tired of "we have people to do that for us."
Anyway, this means that if they think it through when Aleksi lays down the threat, they should realize that not only will a horde of thousands of otherwordly fiends will be unleashed upon the land, but that they will be stuck dealing with it without the support of their kingdom's armies. It's just my style to present difficult, high-stakes choices that could have deadly and merciless consequences, even for the villain. And I just wanna use the Ghost Stone war after building it up to this scale. Even if the PC's back down and Aleksi doesn't unleash the xills and phase spiders, it'd have not gone to waste for the impression it made.
Besides, if they do go for it and kill Aleksi, I do like that idea for a contingency to teleport his corpse for resurrection. I like it even better for the "dark fey" idea, avoiding there simply just being one more lich. And he might need to achieve immortality at some point to remain relevant to the plot anyway. This campaign has already spanned two generations of PCs and over half an in-game century.
I hadn't planned for Aleksi to encounter Count Ranalc until after he escaped from V's tomb and took the Ghost Stone to the Ethereal plane, but perhaps Ranalc made contact with Aleksi as soon as he first studied the Stone. With Nyrissa's plots Ranalc doubtless has eyes of his own on the land and has already devised a use for Aleksi: He could work for Ranalc all along, even while dealing with V. Perhaps I can amp up the importance of the Oculus of Abaddon somehow to make it of some macguffin importance to Ranalc's own plans.
Now I'm thinking a new angle for the Aleksi encounter: He has already stolen the Oculus from V somehow and is preparing to escape the tomb when the players encounter him. So even if the players do slay him, which would become more difficult once an enraged V bursts in, he'll have the Oculus on his corpse when the contingency teleports him out to Ranalc for resurrection. The connection to Ranalc through the Ghost Stone may be severed if Aleksi makes good on his threat before he's killed, but the fabric of the Stolen Lands is like swiss cheese. Aleksi's corpse and the Oculus would get to Ranalc somehow.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
If you are tying him to the Ghost Stone - why not give him something that turns him ethereal? Then if he is attacked, he can slowly fade from view - a bit like the Cheshire Cat :)
Then once the party have taken the Oculus, they had better surround it with all sorts of protections to stop the Etheral baddy just coming to get it when ever he feels like.