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Adivion Adrissant was one of the most brilliant students Petros Lorrimor had ever seen, nearly reaching the same level of his own brilliance. He saw the young man's struggle with academic boredom, as nothing ever came close to piquing his interest as it all seemed paltry and uninteresting - until Petros took him under his wing and showed him the darker side to history and the arcane.
The townspeople of Ravengro who attacked the Lorrimor funeral claiming the man to be a Necromancer were absolutely right. Somewhere along the way, Petros' study of the obscure, dark and magics of Ustalav led him to Necromancy and eventually to the Whispering Way. Adivion became his star pupil, and he showed him the dark abyss that is the lore of The Whispering Tyrant. Petros, already a powerful Necromancer in his own right, was the master and Adrissant the apprentice. The pair had their own theories as to how to free Tar-Baphon, and with Petros' help Adivion pieced together his plan to create the Carrion Crown Elixir. Petros, however, knew that creating a false imitation of The Whispering Tyrant was not enough. He needed a grand sacrifice to open a crack for his master to slip through into freedom, the scale of which transcended good and evil. It required the deaths of not only powerful good beings, but powerful evils ones as well. The sacrifice of the innocent as well as the corrupt. So Petros planned, and plotted, and put together the pieces in his head.
Over the course of his travels in his facade as a goodly professor of the arcane devoted to stemming the tide of the undead prsence in Ustalav and around Golarion, he had met several individuals who showed a certain spark of promise that in hindsight would be excellent candidates for his sacrifice. However, in their current states they were raw, unpolished and useless to his plans. He needed to bring them together in a singular event that would set them on a path that would forge them into the heroes that he required. Adivion had already recruited his own minions in Auren Vrood and his cronies, who Petros ensured never physically met, and so he would use them to set things into motion. He began making the necessary preparations that would allow him to become a lich, all while writing in his journal entries that cast a light of suspicion on cultists that were obsessed with undeath known as The Whispering Way and creating the last will and testament which would draw those he had chosen.
When he knew Vrood was at Harrowstone, he left his darling daughter at home to go investigate. Knowing they would kill any who stumbled onto their ritual, he played the part of doddering scholar, not making any effort to hide his active search of the prison's perimeter. Sure enough, Vrood killed Petros and made it look like an accident. However, Petros' soul did not pass onto the afterlife. Instead, it passed into the body he had prepared via Clone. He watched his own funeral from afar, delighted to see those named in his will arrive to console his daughter and pay their respects to his inert, lifeless remains. After the funeral, the spirits of Harrowstone began bringing back the dead as zombies to assault the living. Petros thought it appropriate to help things along and cement his status as a victim in all of this when he animated his own remains as a zombie and sent it to his own house to attack Kendra and his chosen champions. He knew that eventually they would become involved due to the unstable nature of the prison and catch Vrood's trail. Their sense of duty would drive them to pursue the cultists and in the process, forge them into what he needed.
With that aspect of his plan set into motion, Petros turned his attention towards his apprentice. He had kept Adivion in the dark about his plans, as the Magus was the second sacrifice he needed. He knew that Adrissant was black as coal, and would make an excellent candidate for the sacrifice so long as he was guided in the right direction. Using the elixir on a descendant of Tar-Baphon would be an excellent turn of events, but for Petros' plan he needed the host soul to be completely evil. Count Galdana was anything but that. Indeed, Petros would have to manipulate events so that his champions made it impossible for the elixir to be used on Galdana. He knew what kind of man Adivion was, and that if pushed to the limit he'd most likely use it on himself. That kind of transformation was what was needed for him to fulfill his destiny as the evil component of Petros' ritual; a corrupted soul which had become wholly evil.
The last aspect of his sacrifice would require a truly innocent soul, one unstained by the kind of hard decisions adventuring would bring about. No, there was only one person who could be the last part of his master plan, and he knew exactly who it had to be; Kendra Lorrimor, his own precious daughter. Once Petros left Ravengro and started the process that turned him into a Lich, any minuscule amount of doubt he had about sacrificing Kendra vanished. When the time was right, his agents would seize Kendra and bring her to Gallowspire, where she would be sacrificed to The Whispering Tyrant over the corpses of the fallen Adivion Adrissant, slain by the righteous heroes who championed good, who Petros would finish off as the battle with Adrissant wound down to a close. Such an epic battle with titanic forces of good versus evil, capped by a massacre and a sacrifice of pure innocence would open the seal just enough for Tar-Baphon to slip through and finally be free. Unlike Adivion, Petros had always known who his true master was and would always be.
So.. thoughts? My party is beginning Book IV, introduced with the Carrion hill module, so Petros is undergoing his transformation into a lich or has just completed it. He will continue to scry on the party and make sure they get to where he needs them to be. He knows Adivion will do his part because he trained him well. Getting Kendra will prove an easy task for him, as the party left her in Lepidstadt to study at the University and has been left alone for a while.
Okay, this is pretty neat.
One thing that may slightly complicate things at the end - Gallowspire is within the area of effect for the Renchurch Witch Gate, and is surrounded by a thick cloud of hostile undead spirits. So swooping in the last minute may require something unusual, because teleporting in won't work and the sacrifice won't survive getting physically dragged through the cloud.
Though now it occurs to me that a magnificent mansion with a nondetection up on it would work. Would require Petros to actually already be at the top of Gallowspire, but him watching the fight between the PCs and Adivion from above while inside of a magnificent mansion strikes me as funny.
Oh, my. Very nice.
Dotting for reference.
Its certainly an interesting start - I really like the idea of using Petros in this way.
However, I'm concerned with the fact that the "darling" and "precious" daughter is once again relegated to fainting, incapable adventure treasure...again.
Couldn't you also write Count Galdana as quote, "a truly innocent soul, one unstained by the kind of hard decisions adventuring would bring about"? That would be a relief from the tired trope of "let the men handle this, little lady", as well as a relief from the unintentional misogyny that I'm reading here.
Now, I'm not saying that Kendra can't be a useless innocent (because there are women AND men in real life who fit that bill), but as a writer, I try to be aware of tropes and try to run against them. Not only to make my writing appear fresher than others (because face it, this trope is just lazy writing to its core), but also to try to stem the overwhelming use of such a tired and insulting stereotype.
In popular culture, no matter how strong or well developed a female character may be, she almost always gets relegated to basketball between men at some point in the story, and its irritating. Try something fresher.
[/soapbox]
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I wrote that up yesterday in a short span yesterday and didn't consider things like tropes and such. I was too busy making Tar-Baphon in Hero Lab to be concerned with gender sensitivity concerning the characters in MY game.
Maybe Kendra hangs herself in grief from the steps of Lepidstadt University over the loss of her daddy instead? I'm sure Petros could find somebody else. Maybe little handicapped Timmy who's had black lung from working in the mines? Just for you...
Honestly I don't care if it's Kendra the daughter or Kenneth the son. In my game they are the offspring of a demented and twisted Necromancer who would just as easily spawn and raise their own child to be sacrificed in a dark ritual as they would send them off to boarding school. Gender is a descriptor for the tools I use.
But now that you've made me aware of how irritating those tropes are, I will be sure to overuse them as much as possible. Again, just for you.
Actually, if you really want to turn the trope on it's head, have all the evidence seem to point to Kendra as the intended sacrifice...
& then have a previously unrevealed son be the real sacrifice.
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I wrote that up yesterday in a short span yesterday and didn't consider things like tropes and such. I was too busy making Tar-Baphon in Hero Lab to be concerned with gender sensitivity concerning the characters in MY game.
Maybe Kendra hangs herself in grief from the steps of Lepidstadt University over the loss of her daddy instead? I'm sure Petros could find somebody else. Maybe little handicapped Timmy who's had black lung from working in the mines? Just for you...
Honestly I don't care if it's Kendra the daughter or Kenneth the son. In my game they are the offspring of a demented and twisted Necromancer who would just as easily spawn and raise their own child to be sacrificed in a dark ritual as they would send them off to boarding school. Gender is a descriptor for the tools I use.
But now that you've made me aware of how irritating those tropes are, I will be sure to overuse them as much as possible. Again, just for you.
You're adorable. You asked for thoughts, and I offered them; thanks for dismissing a genuine critique.
Tropes like that are lazy, boring, offensive, and perpetrates the problem, but I'm not going to get into that can of worms with you here, because your flippant attitude proves that you don't see it as a problem.
EDIT:
Bolded my literary critique for you, in case you missed it when you got defensive:
Now, I'm not saying that Kendra can't be a useless innocent (because there are women AND men in real life who fit that bill), but as a writer, I try to be aware of tropes and try to run against them. Not only to make my writing appear fresher than others (because face it, this trope is just lazy writing to its core), but also to try to stem the overwhelming use of such a tired and insulting stereotype.
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Or have Kendra be the real necromancer :)
I love DoomCrow's twist, and have been planning a similar device to bring Petros back late in the game. But I also really respect what Tirisfal has to say.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Carrion Crown authors deliberately made Count Galdana the "damsel in distress" in order to subvert a sexist gender trope. That's not to say you can't change it for your own campaign, but it's worth considering the effects of taking the road less traveled.
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Honestly I don't think the party has anything they are emotionally invested in because the only things most of them want to do is get out of Ustalav with their lives. Some of them are bound by their sense of duty or hatred of undead which is keeping them here so they can hunt down the Whipsering Way Cultists, but the others are just looking for a way to get out alive. This is basically a horror game where all sorts of unspeakable events are happening to and around the PCs. Some of their comrades have already fallen, some went insane or are slowly going insane, and there's all sorts of spooky, scary and crazy stuff that they keep encountering.
The only person they established a connection with emotionally was Kendra, and they left her back in Lepidstadt.
Honestly I don't think the party has anything they are emotionally invested in because the only things most of them want to do is get out of Ustalav with their lives. Some of them are bound by their sense of duty or hatred of undead which is keeping them here so they can hunt down the Whipsering Way Cultists, but the others are just looking for a way to get out alive. This is basically a horror game where all sorts of unspeakable events are happening to and around the PCs. Some of their comrades have already fallen, some went insane or are slowly going insane, and there's all sorts of spooky, scary and crazy stuff that they keep encountering.
So it's a 'Call of Cthulu' game then?
Sweet.
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I did the same but my players aren't into the the sanity mechanics or pursuing the Whispering Way. And to be honest, the more times I read this AP the more I realize how poorly written it is. After sitting down and talking about the AP with my players, they agreed that this isn't what they want to continue playing. They also agreed that the AP was badly written and that the ending is terrible (although they loved the twist I made up with Lorrimor at the end when I told them about it).
So at the end of the day Carrion Crown was ended and after getting feedback from my players I will be starting a sandbox campaign set in the River Kingdoms and Galt.
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i am in the process to start one campaign using CC as point of start. I loved the atmosphere, the "gothicity", but have read just the first 3 books. when the things are going to be more CoC than i am expecting, i will cut the story loose and finish it to keep it going as i think is good for my party.
As for the "emotional" strings, i have come up with this plan
1) i have let the players choose the race/class, but i write their backgrounds
2) the are all born in ustalav and they are all connected between them with lorrimor as "pivot" point.
3) i will start NOT with the funeral, but with a couple of other small adventures when LOR is still alive
4) then i break the hell loose
5) one of the PC (my wife's one) is also the bastard daughter of Lorrimor, offspring of an affair he had in ardeal with away from home teaching and researching.
so the tie between the group and kendra is more solid (the 2 sisters will be reaquainted by the death of their father, and if i go nuclear with the option described as head topic, i have at least 2 good tropes :P)
6) will let you know :)
Im debating this way which would be a great final twist or having Lorrimor and Adivion Adrissant kinda Magneto and Pro X type relationship. With A showing up at his funeral and other places through the adventure
But maybe I could do both
Boy, are your players in for a treat when you reveal who is the true villain.
Or have Kendra be the real necromancer :)
This is my plan, too. Working on it right now, as i plan on running this as soon as I'm done with RotRL (about 2 more sessions.)