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So I've been doing lots of thinking and prepping about Count Caromarc recently. In our campaign he began his experiments while still a student, and Prof Lorrimor and one of the PC's fathers were his co-conspirators. For various reasons they all lost contact with Caromarc and he continued his experiments, culminating with the creation of the Beast (after his wife died).
The one thing I'm a bit confused about is the current state of his wife. She died in childbirth and he's been preserving her over the years with gentle repose, and occasionally speaking to her with speak with dead. He's completely obsessesed with her loss, and it drives everything about him. So far, so good, so gothic.
But why doesn't he just get a raise dead cast on her? The module states that attempts to raise her have been unsuccessful. Why not? The only reasons a raise would fail is if the body is in a poor state (which it's not), or if the soul refuses to return, or some other macguffin like the soul has been stolen. Presumably his wife wants to return... after all she chats to him via speak with dead. And presumably her soul is present. So ... what's the story here? Perhaps she doesn't want to return after all, but if so, WHY?
Any suggestions?
Speak with Dead doesn't actually speak to the person's soul. It speaks to their body. It asks the brain questions, which it can respond to. You can't chat with it or expect it to respond to things it didn't know in life. It's like talking to a painting-- it can only respond with what the painting already has painted, and nothing you say can change the contents of the painting.
You know the old black and white videos of the Russian scientists running currents through the decapitated dog's head, making it like look around and other creepy things? That's speak with dead.
Presumably, she just moved on and doesn't want to come back.
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Ah, of course. It's just like blood biography.
So, given that he is trying to have a relationship of sorts with his wife, this will be difficult. Like memento, she will have no ability to gain memory of their conversations, even short-term.
"Do you know who I am?", he asked.
"You sound a bit like my husband", she said. "But your voice is older, sadder. No, I don't know who you are."
"I am your husband. It has been 40 years since you died my love".
She said nothing, for she only replied to questions.
"Do you remember that time we used to go for picnics on the bank of the river?"
"I'm sorry" she said. "I can't answer that question. I don't know who you are".
He sighed, and single tear began to form in his eyes. "Do you remember the time that you and your husband used to go for picnics on the bank of the river?".
"Yes" she said. "I remember that. Alpon and I would count the butterflies as they flew past. He knew every species in Vieland he once said. I would have liked to have had more picnics, but Alpon was always busy with his work".
"Did you enjoy the picnics? How did they make you feel?"
"I enjoyed them very much. They made me feel alive, free from the burden of the royal life, and our duty. It was always duty with Alpon and his family. The picnics were our only break."
"And how do you feel about that now?"
"Now?" she said. "Now I feel nothing. I'm dead."
"I'm so sorry... so sorry... do you forgive me my dear?"
But she said nothing. For his spell had run out of questions for the day and all that looked back at him was lifeless eyes.
(Yes, I know he only gets two questions with his wands. He should also have a staff of souls instead, as that is cheaper, rechargable, and can be cast at higher CLs if he gets help).
Things
Why you have to go and make me all sad like that?
Wish I had thought of conveying that angle more when my PCs were running through it... though it may have seemed a little ham-fisted considering that he has much more obvious concerns when the players meet him.
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(Yes, I know he only gets two questions with his wands. He should also have a staff of souls instead, as that is cheaper, rechargable, and can be cast at higher CLs if he gets help).
Fantastic! I've been looking for things to give more soul to an adventure that while clever, is almost entirely bereft of background material and flavor. I like this angle very much!
I've come up with something a bit...gross...but fitting, that provides a motive for the Count to assist and an explanation for why the Way used the Beast to steal the effigy.
Since I've already decided that the Count used his stillborn son's heart and brain to build the Beast I will work from the line about 'stillborn cocoon'. I'm going to have the Way steal a portion of Lady Caromac's body; specifically the womb.
The enraged and morning Count will give a few details on the sitation; his wife died just after he abdicated and as his funds had been frozen, he douldn't get a raise dead in time. When he tried to have her resurected, he was told (by the Beast's first victim, Dr. Moritz) that since not everyone could afford to resurect their loved ones, no one could; resurection is illegal in the Palatinate of Vieland.
He will show the PCs a letter from his old colleague Adivion Adrissant, offering aid in his efforts if the Count will assist Adrissant's collegue Vrood. The assault on the castle and it's inhabitants occured *after* the Count refused to let them desecrate his wife's body.
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I recently tied up Trial of the Beast. Here's what I did:
The Palatine Eye had been waging a guerrila political campaign against Caromac for many years, slowly undermining his authority and turning support away from him. Eventually, they got him into enough of a bind where they could threaten him directly. (Never decided exactly what that is; not too important.) They gave him a choice: do this the easy way, step down from the throne, and we will make sure you and your family are taken care of and you preserve your wealth; or do this the hard way and you will lose all that you hold dear.
Caromac took the easy way. Not because it was the right thing, but because he was blackmailed.
Now, some years later, his wife was with child, and in giving birth, she died. He grieved for her pain, he grieved for his stillborn son, but he did not grieve her death: he knew what the clerics of Pharasma would do for him, as they have always dutifully served his family.
However, to his great shock, they clerics of Lepidstadt refused to raise his wife from the dead. This was the great betrayal of the Palatine Eye: they saw the opportunity to end the royal line and prevent future monarchs, so they took it. I made Embreth Daramid a key decision-maker of this betrayal, just to add some extra political drama.
The anguish of "who do we trust?" and "who is the Good guy here?" that my players went through - it was amazing. :-)
I recently tied up Trial of the Beast. Here's what I did:
The Palatine Eye had been waging a guerrila political campaign against Caromac for many years, slowly undermining his authority and turning support away from him. Eventually, they got him into enough of a bind where they could threaten him directly. (Never decided exactly what that is; not too important.) They gave him a choice: do this the easy way, step down from the throne, and we will make sure you and your family are taken care of and you preserve your wealth; or do this the hard way and you will lose all that you hold dear.
Caromac took the easy way. Not because it was the right thing, but because he was blackmailed.
Now, some years later, his wife was with child, and in giving birth, she died. He grieved for her pain, he grieved for his stillborn son, but he did not grieve her death: he knew what the clerics of Pharasma would do for him, as they have always dutifully served his family.
However, to his great shock, they clerics of Lepidstadt refused to raise his wife from the dead. This was the great betrayal of the Palatine Eye: they saw the opportunity to end the royal line and prevent future monarchs, so they took it. I made Embreth Daramid a key decision-maker of this betrayal, just to add some extra political drama.
The anguish of "who do we trust?" and "who is the Good guy here?" that my players went through - it was amazing. :-)
I like it. How did you communicate this information to the players?
I like it. How did you communicate this information to the players?
Daramid alluded to it just enough to make the PCs curious. Caromac gave them the whole speil after they started asking questions about the woman in the tank next to him. Dude's bitter.
Just make sure as GM to pointedly mention the weirdness of the tank and the PCs will follow your lead and ask the right questions. *shrug*
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Using the great ideas in this thread I'm building up Caromarc and his wife. However, instead of a wand of speak with dead I'm going to be setting up the glass bell jar as being partially mechanized with strange knobs and pressurized, fluid-filled tubes. When used correctly, wires send stimulate Ceryse's brain and it answer questions through an audio box that transmits the answers she makes.
The guy is a hugely accomplished scientist, why should he necessarily have to rely on wands?
Using the great ideas in this thread I'm building up Caromarc and his wife. However, instead of a wand of speak with dead I'm going to be setting up the glass bell jar as being partially mechanized with strange knobs and pressurized, fluid-filled tubes. When used correctly, wires send stimulate Ceryse's brain and it answer questions through an audio box that transmits the answers she makes.
The guy is a hugely accomplished scientist, why should he necessarily have to rely on wands?
I like that approach, especially since the alchemist in my group has made it a point to prove to the wizard and cleric that science is more than an equal to traditional magic.
Using the great ideas in this thread I'm building up Caromarc and his wife. However, instead of a wand of speak with dead I'm going to be setting up the glass bell jar as being partially mechanized with strange knobs and pressurized, fluid-filled tubes. When used correctly, wires send stimulate Ceryse's brain and it answer questions through an audio box that transmits the answers she makes.
The guy is a hugely accomplished scientist, why should he necessarily have to rely on wands?
Love it. Using it. My campaign is low-magic, high-gothic, so this sort of adaptation is invaluable to me.
Using the great ideas in this thread I'm building up Caromarc and his wife. However, instead of a wand of speak with dead I'm going to be setting up the glass bell jar as being partially mechanized with strange knobs and pressurized, fluid-filled tubes. When used correctly, wires send stimulate Ceryse's brain and it answer questions through an audio box that transmits the answers she makes.
Very cool. But I'm curious what relevant information she would convey. Building up the Caromac backstory is fun color, but doesn't it get to be a bit of a distraction to have the PCs questioning a corpse at the END of TOTB when it doesn't have information relevant to the future of the campaign?
Actually...and this is a little very mean...you could goad the PCs into killing Caromarc. (Most parties seem to lean towards shoot-first-ask-questions-later, anyhow.) Leave the dead wife to bestow that information which Caromac should have, and convey in the process that he wasn't actually such a bad guy, merely much-abused. If you're playing up Daramid as less than likeable (a la Freund), then your PCs have just done a favor for rather a villain, by slaughtering a tortured noble.