I have some questions about how DMs handled certain aspects of the events within 'Broken Moon'. I run a search-and-question heavy group who love seeing how the dots connect, so I want to fill in some possible gaps. For example:
1) What happened to Kvalca Sain's body? Does the Whispering Way keep it? Do they reanimate it? Do the werewolves get it and bury it? (Speak with dead comes to mind)
2)Were their any witnesses of the Packlord's assassination that live?
3)What way does Auren Vrood and his compnay travel to Feldgrau? Do they avoid all towns altogether? Or.. Do they go through Morcei? Do they cut down to Chastel and then head West? Maybe make a pit-stop in Ardis (probably not)? Maybe try and recruit some undead on the way through House Beumhal in Odranto?
4)Finally, (something from part 4) as far as Raven's Head goes, how did it get all the way from Gallowspire to Avalon Bay? Anyone come up with ideas of its fate after its last use by Bishop Virholt during the fall of Ustalav? Seems like something my players will no doubt ask about, and while I can no doubt come up with something, I'd like to stick to canon as much as possible.
There are no canonical answers to any of the four questions you asked.
Well, except #2: the perpetrator lives :-)
To randomly make stuff up:
1. her pack tore her body apart and each ate a piece, as a way to "reintegrate her into the pack", spiritually speaking
2. nope
3. I had them stop by Ardis, and then to the Adrissant family homestead that is canonically located nearby there (ah, foreshadowing)
4. it's difficult to answer that question without inadvertently planting red herrings and causing PCs to follow weird leads (which is probably why it wasn't answered)
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but I am not sure if the fight that the Raven's Head Mace was lost in didn't happen in the final battle against the Whispering Tyrant, nor in Gallowspire? There were certainly battles against him and his armies all over the country and possibly that one happened near the bay? (I was recently reading about the mace in preparation for Ashes at Dawn and the research done there for the mace). I possibly saw it in Rule of Fear, but I can't remember : ).
My PCs never did ask about what happened to Kvalca's body. But I rather like the spiritual method that Erik put out.
1) I don't recall the book addressing that, but I would wager it was properly disposed of. Eaten, animated as fodder, burned, bathed in lye...
2) Probably Auren Vrood & the leader of the wolf tribe who took control (I cannot recall his name at the moment, sadly). And maybe a Whispering Way stooge.
3) I had Auren Vrood avoiding cities/towns/villages that he didn't have to go to (Ravengro, Lepidstadt, and the Lodge being the exceptions) for many reasons: one, because it left too much of a trail for them to be followed by (they are not particularly discreet), and two, because Auren Vrood himself prefers to eschew the company of the living based upon his history. At least that is how I imagine him. So I had them go to Feldgrau directly without ever going through any hub.
4) I have a recollection that somewhere it was explained how the Raven's Head got down there, but I don't recall. My PCs didn't ask, so I was fortunate there, but I like to think that the person who wielded it fell off a boat and drowned in Avalon Bay, and that's how they got it.
Copernicus: Good question! That's one my PCs DID ask. The literature is sketchy of course about the actual formula and creation details of the Carrion Crown formula. Although the poem does cite the Raven's Head as something to be collected, that doesn't necessarily mean it is vital for the creation of the Carrion Crown formula. I assumed, and communicated such to the party, that the Raven's Head was intended to be used to arm the Whispering Tyrant when he is reborn, as a kind of major middle finger to Pharasma (and as a psuedo-mystical symbolic focus for overcoming death, overcoming the defeat suffered at the hands of that weapon, etc.). Thus this instilled in the party a sense that they had accomplished something very important by keeping a potentially dangerous weapon out of the hands of those who want to rebirth Tar Baphon.
I assumed Raven's Head, a minor artifact in its own right, was intended to become the Tyrant's new phylactery.
A lich phylactery that was a minor artifact in its own right would be a serious pain in the arse to destroy.
In practice, Gallowspire can sustain a half-assed lich indefinitely, so I'm having Adivion, Lucimar, and the Gray Friar intentionally prepare for performing a flawed ritual - one that will get the Tyrant out of his prison, but still leave him bound to Gallowspire and vulnerable to getting sent back into his prison (since the old phylactery is still inside of it).
They want the Tyrant back, but now that they're thinking about it the new Whispering Way leadership isn't willing to meekly step aside for Tar-Baphon once he returns.
These are all good ideas. I rather like Erik's idea of re-integrating the body into the pack by consuming it. It might also lead my PCs into the Shudderwood to seek out some of those who consumed the body. I'm pretty sure my PCs will want to know what exactly happened to the packlord and why, so this is helping me prep.
As far as Raven's Head goes, it WAS in fact lost in a battle against Tar Baphon at Gallowspire:
(Rule of Fear, page 5): "3205 Ustalav is besieged by the monstrous hordes of the Whispering Tyrant... The Pharasmin bishop Prince Adamondais Virholt, bearing the holy mace Raven's Head, leads the crusaders to Gallowspire. The holy warriors fall to the undead archmage's magic..."
Maybe one of the WW or Baphon's agents gets a hold of it after the battle and decides to sequester it away, only to have someone or something destroy the agent and it becomes lost in the waters around Ustalav?
Is there anything on Corspelight, Prince Ardurras II's undead destroying blade? Its mentioned in the same history section of the book, but haven't found any other references to it besides there.
Is there anything on Corspelight, Prince Ardurras II's undead destroying blade? Its mentioned in the same history section of the book, but haven't found any other references to it besides there.
It's described in Prince of Wolves (page 124) and it was stated up in an early issue of Kobold Quarterly.
[Edit] issue 14
