Hey fellows. I was wondering if you could critique something I've done here.
I dislike how there is no awareness of BBG Karzoug in the first adventure. I would like to preview his existence through one of my players, a cleric, who is essentially having semi-prophetic visions, perhaps partially triggered by the proximity to an activated Runewell after entering the Catacombs.
I thought I should share, let me know what you think.
PS. If you are in a RotRL game and your GM's name is Dave, you shouldn't be reading this.
PSS. I let my PCs choose pretty much any deity they want so long as it can work in the campaign setting, they are new to it and to me it doesn't matter if its from Golarion or not.
---
"You begin to pray and meditate as you do the dawn of every day. You steady your breathing and picture yourself being basked in the light and glory Pelor shines down upon you, as you begin chant Pelor’s prayer in Celestial."
"Yet, today, something is off, you keep getting distracted, your mind seems to wander to other images. Images of the violence when the goblins attacked. Images of the sickly visages of the creatures in those (these) halls below Sandpoint. Maybe it’s just all the horror and stress that you have witnessed as of late. Nothing the light of Pelor can’t cleanse from you. Your mind wanders, you start thinking about how nice it would be to sell some of the treasures of the hall and receive some coin, if you took care of the selling personally, you might even take some extra coin for yourself."
"No no no, what are you thinking? That’s not who you are."
...
"You take a few moments and try again."
"This time, the images come quicker, racing through your mind more vividly. You try to open your eyes, but something seems to be stopping you, you almost feel compelled to keep them shut tight...and you do. You see the blood splatter as you smashed your mace into the skulls of the goblins, the red is so intense. Quick flashes of the pale not-human creatures below with their long, oozing maws. You can't help but feel that something about them was strangely... wonderful."
"You even start to see other visions of violence that you know never happened. You see Starry ((PC)) choking a white-faced Thoros((PC)) back at the inn. You then see yourself looking down at a sword you are holding out, you look up and you see its buried in Sandpoint's priest Father Zantus's chest, blood running down from his mouth, a sad expression on his face."
"Your hear is nearly escaping from your chest, pounding so hard it almost hurts. Suddenly... you feel calm again, the images have blurred into a verdant shade of green. This feels nice."
"The green fades. Your entire vision is filled with a stranger's face... a man. He has chiseled, regal facial features, sharp raised eyebrows, a contemptuous look on his face. At first, he doesn't seem to notice you, he is looking off at something else in the distance."
"Suddenly, he turns to lock eyes with you. He opens his mouth;"
"'RUN.'"
"You bolt up, eyes opening to the room you were in."
"What happened? Maybe you just fell asleep while you were trying to meditate. It has been a trying couple of days and you are a little exhausted. But something feels very wrong, and as chills run through your body you suddenly feel very alone and vulnerable. You want to get someone else, and fast."
---
Thoughts? Just to explain a few things, the visions of violent horror are coming from the Minor Runewell of Wrath, but it is connected to Karzoug's, which is why a thought of greed comes into play early on. Starry and Thoros have an on-and-off love-hate semi-sexual relationship, and the symbolism of dream-states have a way of taking out the filter, and then exaggerating. This character killing the priest is kind of possible subconscious feelings he has about him, jealousy: man of faith living a settled life with a flock of followers to watch over must be nice...
Then again, that's kind of envy, I'm not sure it has its place here.
In the future, I am thinking the cleric will have prophetic nightmares when he sleeps about this mysterious stranger (Karzoug) and the doomsday scenario he may one day incur. The sun (Pelor) being eclipsed and the man appears and the world begins to tear apart from underneath him. Eventually the nightmare will change to be the man growing large, so large his head eclipses the sun, the aura of light produced in an eclipse looking like a crown on Karzoug's head.
