One thing that struck me about the AP was the relative scarcity of recurring NPCs. Sure, there's Lavinia, plus a few cameos from the Jade Ravens, Avner, Rowyn and Harliss, and I suppose Vanthus counts even though he only actually appears in the flesh (so to speak) a couple of times, but I'm looking for something a bit bigger.
So, currently I'm thinking in terms of Sir Hesketh the Forsaken (name negotiable!), death knight - a character heavily influenced by the death knight in Lost Temple of Demogorgon, from (I think) Dungeon 106.
Sir Hesketh was a powerful warrior who fell into the service of Demogorgon millennia in the past. He was instrumental in the detonation of the first Shadow Pearl and the subsequent destruction of the Olman Empire. But he had lived in the Empire for years in the buildup to this, and when the civilization fell into ruin he felt oddly empty at seeing beauty and achievements that he had grown to appreciate (and possibly a woman he had grown to love) destroyed. He fell into ennui, and drifted slowly from Demogorgon's sight, obeying those orders he was directly given to the letter but without enthusiasm, and otherwise spending his eternal existence in aimless wandering.
The first time the PCs encounter Sir Hesketh I haven't yet decided on. Some time in SWW is a possibility - HTBM has enough Demogorgon-related stuff already, and he doesn't really slot conveniently into the first two adventures. But he will meet them, thoroughly kick their butts for a round or two, and then say something like "I remember you" and back off. He may ask a couple of cryptic questions that the PCs don't understand, engage them in philosophical conversation, discuss honor with the samurai, etc, etc. Generally, he will know much more about the PCs than he has any right to, and will creep them out good and proper before allowing to go without killing them.
The subsequent times will follow a similar pattern. He will appear seemingly out of nowhere to share the PCs fire, converse in his sepulchral manner, or even possibly pull their fat out of the fire if they end up in a fight and TPK looms too closely.
Then comes Zotilzha. I'll modify him to be the Olman god of volcanoes and destruction. He will tell the PCs that his very nature demands destruction, that through his actions the Olman Empire the birthed him was destroyed, but that he will avenge himself by setting in motion the destruction of its destroyer before his nature turns in upon itself and he destroys himself. He will lay a mark on the PCs, some sort of mystic tattoo or brand. It may provide some minor in-game benefit (perhaps Fire Resistance 5, or a single reroll 1/day), but its true nature will not become apparent until CoBI.
When the PCs reach Taboo Island, they will find their way to the room with the sun, moon and star disk. It's always seemed to me that since the disk is such an obvious puzzle, Khala would have delegated to some skinwalker or dretch the task of methodically trying every combination in turn until he discovered the real one, and Khala could check out what was hidden. Instead, I'm going to have the Disk only activate for someone bearing the mark of an Olman god - like those of Zotilzha that the PCs bear. The disk doesn't simply cough up the Nimbus Bow - it actually transports the PCs back in time to the last days of the Olman Empire.
When they're here, they can witness the first Savage Tide, negotiate the plots and plans of the Olman nobility and priesthood, encounter the Olman Gods, be trained in Olman magic and prestige classes etc, decide whether or not to mention the horrible approaching doom, get given the Nimbus Bow, and meet Sir Hesketh, as he once was. Inevitably, they'll get involved in the conflict over the first Shadow Pearl, fight Hesketh and his minions, and somehow, through their actions, cause the Pearl to be detonated (probably by accident). They'll see the Empire go savage, see Hesketh realise that he mourns what he has destroyed, and then head back to the present before they get eaten by an entire city of savage Olmans. Khala's butt gets kicked, and we get back on track.
After this, it gets fuzzy. I'd like to see them try to redeem Hesketh - he'd know an awful lot about Demogorgon, and would be a useful source of information, but whether they do or not depends on who the surviving PCs are at the time and what attitude they have about the guy. He doesn't really fit into Scuttlecove, but perhaps he could show up as a prisoner in Divided's Ire? I can't really plan any further ahead than that until I get a look at the last three adventures,
Reasons I'm doing this: to add another recurring enemy/antagonist, to explain why Khala hasn't broken through the puzzle and snaffled the Nimbus Bow ages ago, to illustrate more vividly the backstory of the Olmans and Demogorgon, to provide a character in TLD/CoBI who can add a bit of continuity to proceedings (there's pretty much no NPC in either of these modules who will last longer than a session or two, as written), and to change the pace of things a bit during CoBI, because there's an awful lot of dungeon-delving in it and the preceding module, being thrust into the intrigue of a declining imperial court would be a nice change.
Statwise I haven't really put a lot of thought into him yet. He has to be strong enough to overpower the PCs early, but not so strong that he changes significantly the power dynamic in Into the Maw (assuming I put him there). Maybe CR16-17ish, maybe a Death Knight human knight 13, minus the undead followers and nightmare mount, perhaps spellstitched to give him a few abilities like Clairvoyance, Freedom of Movement, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, and the like more for reasons of plot-convenience than anything else.
Any thoughts on this? Are there gaping plot holes I've missed? When and how should I have him make his first appearance? Is two death knights in the one campaign too much? And for those who have seen the next few modules in the AP, how would this sort of character fit in? We're still only very early in the campaign, but I'm almost certainly going to have to introduce him into the game before Dungeon #150 arrives and I get to see how things pan out...
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What a brilliant idea! I was wondering how to get the whole first pearl story out too, though that's a long way off yet for my group. No ideas at the minute, but I'm at work - just wanted to get my enthusiasm in first. And suggest maybe a more Olman/ Aztec name for the Death Knight in question? Something with lots of tl's and p's! And instead of knight maybe one of those funky Leopard or Jaguar Warrior classes - like in the Forgotten Realms Maztica books of old.
Don't have Greyhawk material to relate to, sorry.
I love the Eagle and Jaguar Warriors (they were updated as prestige classes in a Dragon not too long ago, if I remember right - one of those issues focusing on the old TSR campaign settings). I'd definitely be giving PCs the opportunity to work toward those prestige classes, or to create new Eagle/Jaguar Warrior PCs if their regular PC died in CoBI, but for the purposes of this subplot I was going to aim for more of a conquistador-vibe, with Hesketh and his men playing the Cortez role. It gives Hesketh one more thing to regret, doing it that way...
Nice avatar, great idea.
In my campaign I have some Nipo explorers who cross paths with my party and are embroiled in the history of the Pearls. This came into my plan when I put IoD on the Canon Greyhawk world map and realized it's enticingly close to "Japan"
Our game also has two companies that trade in exotic goods from Nipo/Nippon, Zahindia/Zindia, and The Celestial Imperium, and some of their agents are responsible for bringing the characters to Sasserine and have long term roles.
I don't have time to write it out now...
I love your ideas for Zotzilahah and the time travel bit. That's pretty inspired.
I'm not sold on your Death Knight, though. Although there's some appeal to the idea of meeting him back before he turned evil, I don't think he'll add much to the campaign as a villain so much as just take some of Vanthus' thunder. In effect, I believe they'll only be half as effective as story elements.
I honestly believe that Vanthus does a great job filling the role of recurring villain. If that's all you're looking for with a new NPC (and I may be wrong in how I read your post), I don't know that I could come up with something better.
I love the Eagle and Jaguar Warriors (they were updated as prestige classes in a Dragon not too long ago, if I remember right - one of those issues focusing on the old TSR campaign settings).
It's changing the subject a bit, but does anyone know which issue these were in?
Hezreth is an Olman, correct? Why not make him one of the orignial tattooed demon hunter guys?
Demogorgon has tricked him into believing that the pearl will help the empire, by wiping out disease or something. But the PCs know what will happen when it activates and are sent back by Zotzilaha to stop it. This creates a much more believable situation as to why Hezreth wants to redeem himself. I don't really like the idea of Zotzilaha being the one who sent them back, though he is the only one with an avatar on the Isle. Maybe Quetzacouatl tells the couatl in the Temple of the Jaguar to give the heroes his tail feathers, one of which is from Quetzacouatl's tail, and those could be used to activate the puzzle?
I just woke up, so pardon the strange logic.
Hezreth is an Olman, correct? Why not make him one of the orignial tattooed demon hunter guys?
Demogorgon has tricked him into believing that the pearl will help the empire, by wiping out disease or something. But the PCs know what will happen when it activates and are sent back by Zotzilaha to stop it. This creates a much more believable situation as to why Hezreth wants to redeem himself. I don't really like the idea of Zotzilaha being the one who sent them back, though he is the only one with an avatar on the Isle. Maybe Quetzacouatl tells the couatl in the Temple of the Jaguar to give the heroes his tail feathers, one of which is from Quetzacouatl's tail, and those could be used to activate the puzzle?
I just woke up, so pardon the strange logic.
I haven't really decided whether the guy's going to be an Olman or not yet, though I'm leaning towards no. It might ruin the surprise for the PCs if they connect him with the Olman Empire before they encounter him in the past, so I'm rather tempted to make him Generic Medieval Armoured Bloke, or go with the Cortez-analogy I mentioned earlier. And I can't really make him a good guy misled by Demogorgon either - the big D makes death knights out of his faithful servants imho, not his gullible dupes! ;) I figure that at the time of the end of empire, the totem demonhunters are probably a marginalised sect or resistance cell, viewed as dangerous fanatics as demon-worship increasingly infiltrates itself into the higher echelons of Olman society. It's not Greyhawk canon afaik, but hey, my game's not set in Greyhawk, so that doesn't bother me overly...
The Zotzilaha (thanks for the correct spelling, btw!) thing is a bit trickier. It fits thematically in all sorts of ways, but (inevitably I suppose, given this is a time travel plot!) there's something of a temporal paradox involved.
The reasons i'm still leaning towards Zotzilaha:
- I like the 'feel' of Zotzilaha better than Quetzalcoatl. If Q sends them, there's something of a 'destined heroes sent on a divine mission to save the day' vibe, whereas if Z does it, it's more 'harbingers of doom who watch one of the great cataclysms of history unfold, helpless to resist its inexorable march'.
- As you say, Zotzilaha is already in the campaign, and has a role to play with the Tooth of Azahu. And from everything else written about the campaign, Quetzalcoatl is pretty much defunct. Plus, I like the idea of the god of destruction, having overseen the destruction of the empire, the civilisation, and the pantheon, being the last one left standing (even though it is mad and diminished and squatting in a cave).
- No matter what the PCs do, they can't save the Olmans. Game necessity - for the purposes of this campaign, the broad strokes of history are immutable and cannot be messed-with by magical time travellers. If the PCs do something to derail the course of events, then coincidences, side-effects and unexpected factors will intervene to make things happen properly again. It's probably a law of the universe or something. But Quetzalcoatl wouldn't send them unless they had a chance...
I haven't really decided whether the guy's going to be an Olman or not yet, though I'm leaning towards no. It might ruin the surprise for the PCs if they connect him with the Olman Empire before they encounter him in the past, so I'm rather tempted to make him Generic Medieval Armoured Bloke, or go with the Cortez-analogy I mentioned earlier. And I can't really make him a good guy misled by Demogorgon either - the big D makes death knights out of his faithful servants imho, not his gullible dupes! ;) I figure that at the time of the end of empire, the totem demonhunters are probably a marginalised sect or resistance cell, viewed as dangerous fanatics as demon-worship increasingly infiltrates itself into the higher echelons of Olman society. It's not Greyhawk canon afaik, but hey, my game's not set in Greyhawk, so that doesn't bother me overly...
Good point. But, it seems to me that non-Olmans would have a hard time of it on the Isle pre-cataclysm. From the way the geography lies (in Greyhawk) the Isle of Dread is waaaaay out of the way. Wouldn't a conquistdator type go for the edges first to draw off resources away from the Isle before hitting the main stronghold? So having him like Cortez or something would be pretty strange duirng the time he was alive. Besides, its hard to manuver in the jungle in plate mail. :P
Also, you could change the template away from Death Knight to something else, like a spirity thing or something. I totally understand why you would want to keep him as he's already statted and all, but it's an idea.
Thematically, Zotzilaha is a lot darker and existential which is kinda fun. It's just hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that a god of destruction cares that much about the culure. Then again, I also have been identifying the Olman pantheon with the Greyhawk pantheon as a whole. For example, Quetzacouatl is an aspect of Heironeous, Zotzilaha an aspect of Pyremius or Erythnul, Xoipilli (who's not so much mentioned but I stuck him in there for a PC of mine-god of chance, flowers, and hallucagens) is an aspect of Olidammara. If you think of it like that, then Zotzilaha is just a face of mass destruction across the world. He's just not used as often as the others.
Over all, I really do like the idea and like to help others flesh out stories by picking them apart so they can make it stronger. :P I wish I could incorporate it into my campaign but it's too late. Besides, the druid has become very good friends with the Olman druids, who have shown him their sacred groves, which leads to conversations with the gaurdians and what not. Good times.
Good point. But, it seems to me that non-Olmans would have a hard time of it on the Isle pre-cataclysm. From the way the geography lies (in Greyhawk) the Isle of Dread is waaaaay out of the way. Wouldn't a conquistdator type go for the edges first to draw off resources away from the Isle before hitting the main stronghold? So having him like Cortez or something would be pretty strange duirng the time he was alive. Besides, its hard to manuver in the jungle in plate mail. :P
Check out the film by Werner Herzog, "Aguirre, Wrath of God". In short, it's the story of a group of Spanish explorers, searching for El Dorado, eventually led by a madman. They travel in armor, and their obvious discomfort reinforces your observation. Plus, the movie's a really cool inspiration for jungle-oriented combat.
I like the idea of having your players go back in time. (It does allow for a lot of flexibility/connectivity for how "A" became "B", and that stuff.) If you've DMed the Age of Worms AP...
I think that, unless your players really dig death knights, Vanthus will be enough. If you want another reoccuring villain, consider fleshing out someone already in one of the backdrops. All of the backdrops contain massive amounts of potential for more baddies.
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An awesome recurring villain tactic I am using is that I have Rowyn Kellani as a drowned from one of those MMs. not sure which one. Now my Pcs are in CoBI, and once they reach Into the Maw, Rowyn will be a fiendish drowned warlock.(I took away all the bard and rogue levels after she drowned and became a, well, drowned.)
An awesome recurring villain tactic I am using is that I have Rowyn Kellani as a drowned from one of those MMs. not sure which one. Now my Pcs are in CoBI, and once they reach Into the Maw, Rowyn will be a fiendish drowned warlock.(I took away all the bard and rogue levels after she drowned and became a, well, drowned.)
How funny! I did a very similar thing with Rowyn. After my party killed her by tying her up and drowning her after knocking her out on the Wyvern, I decided right then she had to come back for one last scare. I've statted her up as an advanced, elite Drowned who will make her final appearance during the siege of Farshore in Tides of Dread. That'll teach them to execute people as a good party.
Also, you could change the template away from Death Knight to something else, like a spirity thing or something. I totally understand why you would want to keep him as he's already statted and all, but it's an idea.
Actually, I'm going with Death Knight more as a foreshadowing thing for Vanthus later. When the PCs first encounter Hesketh, they'll probably do some research and with a decent Knowledge check I can tell them 'the first Death Knights were created by the Demon Prince Demogorgon', even if all this happens before they run across Olangru and the Lemorian Golem in HTBM. It makes it seem more logical and less handwaved when Vanthus comes back after being killed if I've already established that Demogorgon's favoured instruments come back from death as death knights in his service.
Of course, I may have to change a bunch of this, since James Jacobs posted on another thread that St Kargoth will play a part in the Savage Tide, and obviously I'll have to tie Hesketh's story and plotline in with this somehow - if only I knew how it was going to play out! I'll have to introduce him in the next month or so (leaning towards doing it in a bridging adventure between TINH and BG - perhaps Escape from Meenlock Prison, if I can think of the slightest reason for a CR17 death knight to be hanging around a winery run by a bunch of 3rd-level types!) and I'm worried about writing myself into a corner when it comes to the latter parts of the AP.
Thematically, Zotzilaha is a lot darker and existential which is kinda fun. It's just hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that a god of destruction cares that much about the culure. Then again, I also have been identifying the Olman pantheon with the Greyhawk pantheon as a whole. For example, Quetzacouatl is an aspect of Heironeous, Zotzilaha an aspect of Pyremius or Erythnul, Xoipilli (who's not so much mentioned but I stuck him in there for a PC of...
Yeah, we probably differ fairly majorly in our view of the gods. In my (non-Greyhawk) campaign, there's local pantheons all over the place, and the power of the gods waxes and wanes with the number of their worshippers. So while the major gods (heavily inspired by the gods of Song of Ice and Fire, plus a few extra blow-ins like adaptations of Umberlee, Gwynharyf, and Baron Samedi) are pretty much untouchably powerful by reason of their widespread worship, Zotzilaha, who's clinging onto a mere couple of hundred worshippers who don't really see him as a particularly major deity even among their pantheon, has diminished enough than now he's lurking in a cave like Gollum, muttering over the past and going quietly mad. And he's only going to get weaker, as the priests settling in Farshore begin to convert the last few of his Olman believers. This ploy with the PCs is probably his last throw of the dice to get his vengeance on Demogorgon...