DorianAdricus's page

In answer to "Why Ravengro?", I inferred that the Lorrimor's were actually one of the old, dissolved noble families of Tamrivena and that the Lorrimor house their old family estate. The Professor and Kendra were the last of an old and respected noble family (the crest of the House Lorrimor is a fierce owl descending on a serpent with its talons).

Most of the professor's adult life, he spent either in his modest apartments in Lepidstadt while he was teaching, but a bachelor's apartments was no place to raise a young child, so he relocated back to the old family estate when Kendra came into his life. Also, (since I'm using some of the modifications that Kendra is far more important to the overall legacy of the battle against the Way), Ravengro is a fine, out of the way, and unremarkable place to raise someone who you don't want to be found.

Thanks Sibelius, this is great stuff.

Riffing on some of this:

* Kvalca Sain & the Vollensang - Long have the Primals ruled the Shudderwood, and they do so with the sensibility of their Khellid ancestors. All know that as long as they are accorded respect and tribute, all that you have will be safe. They enforce a peace, of a sort, by slapping down any rivals. They aren't interested in dominating the free people of the Shudderwood, just maintaining its independence from the Varisian Ustalavic interlopers and keeping it free from the aristocrats whims. Kvalca Sain herself has been a figure of dominance and severe justice for years, operating by a warrior's code of honor, though she has, of late, been showing her age about her muzzle.

* Malthus Mordrinacht & the Mordrinacht - Speaking of aristocrats, the Mordrinacht consider themselves the rightful rulers of the Shudderwood through their connection to old priest and the vilkacis. Since the fall of the counts of Lozeri, the Mordrinacht, under the leadership of the selfish and entitled Malthus, have been scheming to gain deeper control of not just the Shudderwood but all of the county. As such, he is not above playing "human" politics, a game that the more primal denizens of the Shudderwood have long resisted.

* Adimarus Ionacu & the Jezeldans - The newest and fastest growing "sect" of werewolves, they are a cult of personality led by the ambitious (and vicious) antipaladin Adimarus Ionacu. Once a paladin crusader in Mendev, he was driven mad by his experiences in the Worldwound and fell prey to the temptations of Jezelda. Given a new, virulent form of demonic lycanthropy, he has forged a small militant army of dangerous fanatics bent on overwhelming the Shudderwood and expanding the reach of the Worldwound into Ustalav through the forest. The virulence of the Jezeldan strain is such that they can even "infect" existing lycanthropes, essentially overwriting their current condition with the taint of Jezelda.

* Cybrisa Dorzhanev & the Dorzhanev - Along with the Primals and the Mordrinacht, the Dorzhanev strain of lycanthropy in the Shudderwood is one of the oldest, though it is believed in myth that their strain is the only one created not through a curse but through a blessing. When the Whispering Tyrant swept through Ustalave, it is said that his forces of death were checked at the border of the Shudderwood by a being known only as the Deathless Maid, a predator of firey hue who hunted and destroyed his "Deathless" minions until even they, the fearless dead, feared the depths of the primeval forest. It is also said that Prince Andriadus Virholt himself was infected by the Dorzhanev strain before their path diverged (as Varisians are wont to do). Currently under the leadership of Cybrisa Dorzhanev, the passionate Druid of the Shudderwood, she is desperate to both prop up the old order of Kvalca's rule while foreseeing the oncoming storm of Adimarus' tyranny. As such, she has sought out unlikely allies in the form of the charismatic Malthus Mordrinacht and, perhaps most dire, begun communing with an ancient eldritch power known as the Black Goat of the Woods. A personal falling out with her former lover, Rhakis Szadro, has made an alliance with the elusive Prince's Wolves tricky at best.

* Rhakis Szadro & the Prince's Wolves - The elusive Varisian pack of werewolves "led" by Rhakis Szadro traditionally focus on everything BUT the politics (such as they are) of the Shudderwood. Holding on to a proud and empty tradition of resistance against the Whispering Tyrant beneath the banner of Prince Andriadus Virholt, the "Prince's Wolves" are little more than Sczarni road gang with some elevated powers. Rhakis himself has made it a point to reject his "destiny" as revealed to him by his former paramour Cybrisa, deliberately setting out from the Shudderwood to avoid having to take any responsibility for the failing forest. His troop is currently engaged in a low level gang war with another Sczarni troop, the drug dealing Red Parade, led by a hag acolyte of the formerly Barstoi based Dublesse sisters, themselve students of the "dead" hag Oothi.

So, we are just getting started with the AP (2 sessions into Harrowstone) and would love some ideas or feedback on integrating a shifter PC into the greater arc of the narrative...

One of my PCs is playing a shifter (imported from Eberron) cleric of Desna. I worked with her a little bit early on to locate her home village as within the eaves of the Shudderwood, because the ties of being a shifter as well as a cleric of Desna were too tight to Broken Moon to ignore right off the bat.

Problem is, I'm having a little difficulty giving her a greater connection or foreknowledge of what it would actually be like growing up on the edge of the Shudderwood.

Right now, here's what we have so far:

She is from a small, isolated hamlet set within the eaves of the Shudderwood. Her mother, also a cleric of Desna, is the local matriarch and is a Dorzhanev by blood (but not a full-fledged werewolf). Her mother's sister is Cybrisa, druid of the Shudderwood. Her father is an afflicted lycanthrope who found sanctuary in the small village.

While her mother is deeply traditionalist and has a somewhat anti-Desnan tendency to want to tend the local congregation, preserve the secrecy and sanctuary of the hamlet, her aunt Cybrisa encouraged her to be proactive, get out and see the world and make an impact. She idolizes her aunt's carefree and unbound attitude (without really perceiving the darker, sinister impulses that Cybrisa barely keeps restrained).

I'd love to integrate some of the other personalities from the AP into her lore, but I'm having difficulty putting my finger on who they are or how she might know (or have heard) about them. It's a good opportunity that I don't want to miss to give more depth and meanign to Kvalca Sain, Malthus Mordrinacht, Adimarus Ionacu, and Rhakis Szadro, but I'm struggling to tie it all together...

My version of Adivion, inspired by many of the great ideas in this forum (and a bit of an accident at the table)... As my campaign is just getting off the ground, I welcome any feedback.

Adivion Adrissant, the Fallen Hero

Born to minor, wealthy nobility in the county Caliphas, Adivion was always a precocious child. Brilliant by any measure of such things, he was a born polymath, flitting from the study of the natural sciences, to mathematics, to more esoteric lore, the young lord Adrissant was, unfortunately, a bit cursed. His natural abilities led him to almost organically begin to see himself as beyond the people he was surrounded with. His parents were loving, if distant. His tutors were diligent, and some even felt honored to work with him, but to him, they were... shadows. He could outhink them, outwit them, and see through their motivations. His entire life he felt as if he was the only truly real person, walking in a garden of images, with no more depth than a ray of sunlight.

When Petros Lorrimor came into his life, as his teacher at the University of Lepidstadt, it was a revelation. Here was a man who challenged him. He sought out the older man, made it a point to BE challenged by him. The two men became friends, as mentor and mentee. For Lorrimor's part, he saw in the young Adrissant a more than worthy mind, but was always troubled by what he saw as a certain... coldness. A disconnection to the greater whole of humanity. Lorrimor made it a point to try and be the anchor, the conscience of this young man. And it worked... for a time.

Together, Lorrimor and Adrissant, along with others, soon took up with the Palatine Eye, most especially in their work against the Whispering Way. It was a shadow game being played in full view of the nation, and Adrissant excelled. He reveled in being able to exercise his abilities against a coven of near immortals. The problem came when he, in his endlessly iterating series of probabalistic projections, came to an inevitable conclusion. That no matter how well they played the game, no matter how many pieces they removed from the board... the Whispering Way would win. In the end, entropy would take hold, the Palatine Order would succumb to its already burdensome secrecy and circumstance, and the Way would win. Adivion saw only one way out. The Palatine Order and the Way must... merge. The Palatine Order could give the Way leadership and direction, take control of it for the betterment of all. It was inevitable that Tar-Baphon would be unchained... sometime... and so it must be that if he would be released, let the Order do it, now, and under their command.

He knew that the leadership of the Palatine Order would rebel at this notion, even his good friend Lorrimor would be horrified, but he felt he must try. He owed his friend that. Thus began the fight that would break their bond and drive Adivion away from his friend and mentor. Adivion was not so foolish as to reveal his plans all at once, but he began testing the waters in debates and conversations, and eventually it was enough to poison the well. Lorrimor rejected him. Now knowing that if his good friend wouldn't listen, what hope was there for the rest, he opted instead to begin working on the Whispering Way. No enemy of the Way was better versed in their tactics and their knowledge than Adivion, so it was an easy matter to in turn infiltrate them, to make his way swiftly through their ranks.

As the years went by, and his double life grew more difficult to manage, he made another fateful decision. He created a simulacrum of himself and carefully manicured its memories and knowledge. False Adivion would continue, living his life, teaching at the Quarterfaux Archives as a Curate Professor of Ethics and Logic, and Adivion Prime would continue, rising through the ranks of the very organization he was sworn to destroy with the misguided notion that he could, he WOULD, control it.

Lorrimor's death was an accident. He was not even supposed to BE in Ravengro at the time. Adivion Prime himself met with the Professor in a bid to win the old man back, repair their relationship, and keep him away from Harrowstone long enough for that brute Vrood to be in and out with the required soul. But the Professor was a stubborn old man, and too curious for his own good. And so, he was were he was not supposed to be, and died for it.

The funeral was attended by Adivion... but not Adivion. The simulacrum that thinks of itself as Adivion was righteously indignant and furious at the death of his beloved mentor, even though they hadn't spoken in 7 years. He was even more confused and frustrated when the player characters pointed out that the professor's own journal indicated that they had spoken together not three months ago?! Absurd. There must be someone out there so conducting so convincing a performance that it would fool the old man. And so, this is where we are. Two Adivions exist, one, the prime, now risen to the top of the order he's sworn to destroy and another, the false man, determined to find out who in the Way would be so foolish as to strike at him. The two are now destined to collide, but unfortunately for the false man, as well intentioned as he may be, he is just ice and snow after all...