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Just wondering if any DM's came up with a reason as to why Ellival Moonmeadow, the only elven mine manager, was doing in Diamond Lake for over a century. One of my PC's is playing his nephew and while I have a few ideas as to what an elven noble would actually be doing in a town like Diamond Lake, I was curious to see if anyone else had done something neat. A few ideas I thought of:
- Moonmeadow's sole silver mine is a front for a secret lode of mithral discovered years ago near Diamond Lake. The mithral, mined by unbeknownst humans, is secretly sent to Celene through magical means, possibly through a portal. Moonmeadow is an agent of Celene sent to make sure the authorities of Greyhawk don't become aware of the treasure beneath their feet.
- Over a hundred years ago, elven seers of Sehanine Moonbow in Celene discovered omens about an upcoming Age of Worms. Portents lead them to believe that heroes would arise with the power to prevent this age of darkness, and signs pointed that these heroes would appear near the lake that once was clear. Moonmeadow is but one of many Celene agents throughout the Flanaess who is trying to prevent the Age of Worms from becoming reality.
- Centuries ago the Order of the Storm and their elven allies defeated the forces of Kyuss. After their victory, the Order of the Storm eventually died out, leaving the task of protecting Oerth to the elves of Celene. For years the elves have kept a subtle lookout on the Cairn Hills and Moonmeadow is their chief man in the area.
All those sound cool -- and logical.
None of the players in my AoW game are elves or have anything to do with elves, so that's a play hook I haven't had to work up.
My initial thought on reading the information on Moonmeadow was he would simply provide a way for (elven) characters to gain a patron who was outside the mine manager politics/intrigue sphere.
Somewhere down the road Moonmeadow might be a a means to getting the reclusive elven kingdom to aid the adventurers against the coming Age of Worms (though personally, I sincerely doubt it. If the emergence of Kyuss can't get the elves to stir, I don't know what will).
OR...he's just a very weird elf who likes gold mines? : )
One of the posted AoW campaign logs details a party primarily composed of elves that is in tight with Ellival. I can't remember what this DM did with Ellival, but he definitely had a role in mentoring the party. IMC I haven't developed Ellival much, but I have him set up as both mine owner and broker--elves from several other nearby communities (e.g. Celadon Forest) have also sent representatives to Diamond Lake to conduct these groups' trade with Ellival's mining concern.
One of our PCs is Ellival's acknowledged son and another is his bastard half-elf daughter. This has led to some interesting character dynamics (just about everything the son has done can be traced back to his strained relationship with his father) but it hasn't actually given Ellival himself a major role in the action.
My backstory on him is not as grand as some of the others proposed here. I think he committed some social faux pas (or even a more serious crime) back home and is in self-imposed exile, pretending to an elven greatness that he wouldn't be given if he were actually back there. He's bitter, which came across in his relationships with the son and daughter.
The daughter turned out to be a warlock. The source of her powers is obscure; I'm leaning to the theory that they're dark-fay powers, not diabolical ones. Her mother is Luzane, who shows little sign of warlockhood. We had a cool bit where Luzane finally, after long inattention, took an interest in her daughter--she turned out to have been charmed by a foe who wanted her to get some information on the PCs' activities.
The player's concept for the PC party was that all five of them were the offspring of various mine managers. That worked out quite nicely, especially the sudden and drastic change in relationship between the party paladin, Ravlim Smenk, and his dad.... Ravlim's brothers are now running the family mines, while Ravlim himself is de facto mayor of Diamond Lake, and that's been a really fruitful roleplaying angle. Ravlim shipped Balabar off to the fabulous Free City for trial, where he was quietly pardoned and put to work elsewhere. This helped convince Ravlim that it's better to do justice yourself than wait for the authorities, which given the lousy response of the authorities to the Age of Worms seems like a necessary lesson in order to make the campaign work out.
Another PC now owns Dourstone Mine and has to think about the consequences of leaving that temple and black pool intact down there. Things might come out. (It's a great seed for side adventures.)
We've spent a lot more time in Diamond Lake than the modules expect. My player listened to all the "you want to get out of town as soon as possible" hints in Whispering Cairn and became determined not to leave! So the PCs are cleaning up Diamond Lake, and actually have been reluctant to engage with Kyuss as a result. They're picking up interest now, after Longshadow.
Mary
BIGGIE SPOILERS AHOY!!
I gave Moonmeadow the feel of someone who was almost completely insignificant in Celene who moved to Diamond Lake to be a type of nobleman. Not so much to bully the locals around, but so that he can give an air of respectibility to his compatriots back in his homeland. He's really kind of tragic that way.
In your case, though, I think you've hit some good ideas. My preferences are to not have everything the party encounters be related to the Age of Worms, but if you prefer a more epic/presaged party concept then have at it. Except for the party starting in Diamond Lake, though, there's nothing actually to connect the location to the prophecy of Kyuss. The closest tie it has is an ancient lab that used to be used by Vecna and is currently used by a group of people being duped by the agents of Kyuss.
Seriously, the only reason the party gets involved in the AoW is because they go to a place and meet a ghost whose family's corpses were sold to a necromancer who had one of Kyuss' worms. One of the things I like about how this Path starts is the shear chance of it all. It really does enforce the "small town boys become heroes" aspect that I like in epic fiction.
To throw out one final, over the top idea that just occured to me though, would it work if you replaced Lashonna with Moonmeadow? It's really just off the top of my head, but what if Moonmeadow was the vampiric silver dragon that was trying to replace Dragotha. He could be in Diamond Lake to manipulate the local Ebon Triad cell in some way.
Whatever his backstory is, his work would be done after Gathering of Winds and he would return to Alhaster where the PCs next meet him (in lieu of Lashonna). He can claim to be a refugee like Shag Solomon, but can otherwise give them all the information Lashonna would (and they'd be that much more willing to trust him). Imagine their surprise when they get to the Library of Last Resorts and find out he was involved in the original war a bajillion years ago. Suddenly their long-time patron has some questions to answer. You would have to do some juggling with any PCs you have who are descendents of his (since I don't know that vampires can have kids), but I'm sure you can come up with something.
How's THAT work for you?
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I'm not too sure about replacing Lashonna with Moonmeadow, but I like your idea of making Moonmeadow a villain. Perhaps Moonmeadow could be Ilthane's humanoid form? It so happens that one of my PC's is playing an elven rogue/wizard whose uncle is Moonmeadow and whose father happened to be killed by Ilthane a few years ago.
Perhaps Moonmeadow could be Ilthane's humanoid form?
HAH!! I say do it!
Oh, wait. Except that Ilthane's a chick on account of her leaving an egg with the lizardfolk...
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Oh, wait. Except that Ilthane's a chick on account of her leaving an egg with the lizardfolk...
Can't polymorphed dragons choose any sex? The problem I see is that normally only gold, silver, and greyhawk dragons have the alternate form ability to assume humanoid shape. A black dragon would have to be ancient to be able to cast polymorph. A simpler solution would be to give Moonmeadow/Ilthane a hat of disguise (along with a ring of mind shielding). These items could be gifts from Lashonna or Dragotha.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MY PLAYERS!
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In my campaign Ellival is one of the major villains although he is not related to the main plot of the AP. As a several hundred years old wizard originated from Aerenal, he is after the part of the Rod of the Seven Parts found in the Whispering Cavern . He spent nearly half a decade researching for the location of the cavern in which the relic is entombed with the Wind Duke and there is nothing to stop him to get the object of his obsession.
In our game, after learning about the fact that the player characters are heading to the cavern in question, he had taken hostage the companion/servant of one of the characters, then sent them a letter along with the poor girl's little finger blackmailing them to retrieve the relic and hand it over to him.
After clearing out the tomb, the players (with the help of the scrying device of the monastery), found out where the servant was held and freed her, but learned only some clues about the villain because the girl was blinded magically while tortured for information: he is a male, speaks Brelish with an accent and wears a perfume made of a rare orchid...
they haven't met yet with Ellival personally, so for the moment these clues are meaningless for them...
One of the defeated hired muscles was a psion who contacted his boss through a psionic crystal and informed him about the ambush, so the following night two summoned babaus attacked them trying to force the part of the rod out of their hands. Naturally they fled, using clever escape plans, but now they are aware of the fact that their enemy is indeed very powerful...
It's funny that Ellival Moonmeadow played such a big role (or will do so) in other people's AoW games, as he did for the earlier portion of mine in a way.
One of the party's PCs was an elf by the name of Slade, who was indentured into servitude to Ellival Moonmeadow, after the application of an archaic elven marriage law in Celene. (His elven wife died in a carriage accident, and he was required to make up for the financial burden by working for his brother-in-law, Ellival.)
The Moonmeadow estate had six other elven servants in Ellival's employ, but they were all snot-nosed punks, who had been sent there by their parents to teach them a lesson about what hard work was like. However, instead of having to actually work, Ellival allowed them to let the place fall to ruin, as Ellival had become a drug addict, (the drug was called kalamanthis), leaving Slade to handle almost the entirety of the Mine's affairs. Finding Ellival somewhere on the estate passed out became increasingly common.
Ellival, also somewhat of a gambling addict, was often accompanied by the somewhat older Slade to Lazare's House, where Ellival would actually make a small profit to get him by. (Slade had also become enamored--and vice-versa--with Dannath, and the two were having a secret affair together, unbenownst to both their benefactors.)
After TWC, one of the bratty elven young men, named Dane, kidnapped a helpless drunk, and tied him above a pit of acid. When the heroes tried to rescue him, Dane threw a poison dart (one of Ellival's darts), hoping to frame Ellival in the process. Slade went to investigate Ellival, who was missing, his bedroom window open, letting a blizzard in. (I set AoW during the winter.) Slade later suspected that Ellival was not involved, and after receiving abnormal resistance to investigation from Dane, intimidated his role out of him.
After 3FoE, Ellival returned, looking much more sober. He explained that he had a "vision quest" of a snow heron, which he called his "spirit animal", and that it compelled him to travel through the wintry forests to cleanse his body and mind of impurities. (Yeah, I portrayed him as that kind of guy.) Slade congratulated him on his recovery, and Ellival said he was planning on leaving Diamond Lake, and that Slade was free of his servitude; further, he would soon be appointing a successor to the mine. Not thinking anything of it, Slade prepared to travel to the Free City with his party, when Lazare, who had uncovered Slade's affair, challenged him to a duel. Lazare accused Slade of using his daughter to further his own political ambitions in Diamond Lake, and Lazare revealed that Ellival had recently appointed none other than Slade to the position of mine manager. (Longer story shorter, after talking his way out of it, Slade passed the mine to Lazare.)
Ellival made his return in a surprising way. When the party investigated Zyrxog's lair in the Free City sewers, they found several prisoners guarded by zombies and his drow priestess thrall, Myriannas. Amongst the prisoners was Ellival, whom after being freed of his bonds, was the most capable of leading the others out of the sewers. He had become more down-to-earth, having explained that his flightiness had led him to be fooled by a pair of thieves (doppelgangers), who captured him for their master.
Ellival stayed at the home of another aristocratic elven acquaintance of both Slade and himself, Ilya Starmane, whom was rescued from the Sodden Hold earlier. (She had previously revealed to Slade that Ellival had told her a year prior--after Slade's wife's death--that Slade had wanted to go to Diamond Lake to "get away from the past.") Still, Slade moved on, noting how Ellival seemed a changed man. Ellival and Ilya became fans of Slade's during the Champion's Games, attending the matches, and being likewise invited to Eligos' feast following the games.
When the need to return to Diamond Lake came up, Ellival came with them. He had made it his mission to warn others in the town he fled of the dangers of his addictions, and how they nearly destroyed himself and all he loved. He earned the trust of many citizens of Diamond Lake after helping the party gather townsfolk in the chaotic remains of Diamond Lake following Ilthane's attack, and rebuild the city, even using the Moonmeadow Residence as a hospice for the recently homeless. (On a side note, Dane was shortly appointed the new mine manager by Lazare, with Ellival's blessing, after his effort at the end of 3FoE, when Dourstone attempted a cave-in with dynamite, and he helped get people out of the mine, even bound as a prisoner himself. His new sense of justice gave him the tenacity to mount a resistance against Ilthane when she attacked. Most of his allies were slain, as the attempt only served to aggravate the dragon, and he lost his arm in the attack, but his courage was a model for others.)
In the end, Ellival was one of the most important NPCs in my campaign, and served to flesh out the background of one of my PCs, as well.