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I imagine this is Wes's territory, but since he's been quiet as of late, I figured I'd through it out there to anyone else. Here's the jist of it: I am planning an encounter that will run kind of like this:
-PCs are traveling via enchanted carriage to Castle Corvischor
-Whispering Ways's Tyrants encounter them on road, demanding Raven's Head. This consists of the Dullahan from the beginning of Book 5, but will also consist of 3 other more powerful riders, all of whom need to be named.
-Carriage will attempt to escape, using a Shadow-Walk power to ferry the PCs into the Plane of Shadows.
-The Dullahan will pursue them using the Nightmare's Plane Shift ability, taking the Ghoul Wolves also (I know it needs to roll percentage, but I'm going to hand-wave that for cinematic coolness)
-PCs will fight Dullahan encounter as normal.
-PCs escape to Castle Corviscor.
My other riders consist of a Graveknight (standard from Bestiary 3 with a few feat swaps [lance]), Wight Lord, and a Demi-Lich. I plan on having the Demi-Lich animating a Skeletal body and mount beneath it to allow it to move around, yet have to watch the range on that Trap the Soul ability. Currently, two PCs are suffering from Madness that's reducing their Will saves significantly, so running any encounter with High DC will saves isn't remotely fair. The Demi-Lich might get swapped out for something else more martial-esque, but besides the three above, I'm hard pressed to find another I want to use. Anyways, the heart of my question:
I want these guys to be named; I want players to be able to roll their Knowledge: Nobility or History to know who these guys are rather than what they are. What family names or bloodlines are associated with the Whispering Tyrant?
Not to bump (I've never done that with a thread), just an update. The names I've come across so far include Esprilllian (Blood Knight) from part 5 and then from part 6, Palavanis, Drolloc, and Namat. I'm also thinking of doing a twist on some of the more popular names like Arudora to note offshots or families that swore over to the tyrant. I'm thinking Galdlych, Arudolich, Calychos, stuff like that. Other than creating or using the aforementioned, I'm at a loss. Even Rule of Fear has a little bit of 'name stricken from record due to shame and ruin brought on Ustalav'.
No, only the usual ones on the wiki. I guess I'm kind of hoping for a "The founder of this county was actually a servant of TB" kind of juice, but nothing in the AP or Rule of Fear. Hoping Wes escapes from whatever Mists swallowed him up, as I am running some of what's above tonight.
So, I guess the fun of deviating from the main course of the AP is creating your own stuff. My takes:
Graveknight Cadrin Drolloc, A former Taldan general who willingly lead an elite strike team into the waiting hands of the Tyrants servants. Though killed by his own doomed team in the foray, as he laid dying, Tar Baphon rewarded his betrayal and helped to raise him back to his undead state. Responsible for numerous atrocities against prisoners of war along the Amaans and Virlych border.
Wight Lord Eldren Galdlych, A disgraced squire who lead a revolt against the lord of Castle Andachi, allowing the Orcs of the Tyrant's army that strike a decisive blow, letting for an easy invasion of the western borders in the early days of the conflict. Seduced by whispers of power given his intelligent longsword Bloodfreeze, the brutal man would have been a liability to the Tyrant's forces if not for their power to re-animate the orcs that the creature indiscriminately displayed. Slain by Prince Virholt in the march on Gallowspire, his body was reanimated for the final fight, though his fate his unmentioned after this event.
Lich Avasha Kavenoff, Believed to have been a high cleric of Urgathoa slain by adventurers in the ruins of Kalxecourt, this recent devotee to the Whispering Way clearly seeks the end of all thing, simply to experience the sensation of it.. (Using Lich from Undead Revisited)
With the Dullahan, that gives me four horsemen to chase off my PCs with. With the Lich, I can at least channel to heal the group if my group tries some sort of crazy ranged offensive plan instead of running. About to run in 30 minutes, so I'll let others know how this minor bit of rail-roading goes.
I hope they layed the smack down on the 4 horseman
It all worked out well, and I got the further bonus of buying some delaying time to detail the backstory of the other riders.
What happened: The PCs did their journey through the Forest of Veils, where they did some personal interactions to further detail the insanity suffered by the two PCs. I prompted some of this with conversations with the Count's servant, Ruthven, the operator of the Black Carriage.
Ruthven Yeah, the name's cliche, but I made the Count's servant a ten-year old that acted and spoke as if he were in his forties. He was one of Ristomir's successes so to speak, a child that nearly died but was saved with an alchemical regent mixed with vampiric blood that kept him alive but prevented him from forever aging.
Encounter at the Bridge I allowed the Knowledge Religion checks to identify a Graveknight, an Unknown Armor-clad, undead (Wight Lord), the Lich, the Dullahan, and his ghoul wolves. Realizing they were outmatched, a chase ensued, with the magic of the carriage (creates Phantom Steeds to power it) overtaking the horsemen. At that point the wight-lord used his Haste ability to speed up the group so that they threatened to catch the carriage. As planned, the Carriage dipped into the Plane of Shadow, with only the Dullahan and the Wolves able to pursue. The fight was interesting because the powers of Raven's Head finally revealed themselves when used again one of the Ghoul wolves by the Oracle. What made the fight hard for the PCs were the two PCs suffering from their Insanities. -4 to all Will saves is rough, but the fact that the already hard-to heal Dhampir was actively resisting spells and effects used on him by his allies coupled with the Multiple Personality Disorder of the Scythe-Specialized Fighter made it dicey at points, allowing the Ghoul Wolves to occasionally isolate the Bard or Oracle (prompting the wielding of Raven's Head). The way the MPD is being run is that the Fighter occasionally shifts between the personalities of PCs slain in the path so far. For this particular fight, he acted like the dead Roge Foxglove, using Stealth to snipe with a bow and relying only on flanks to make attacks.
At any rate, I allowed the PCs to realize that the two armor clad figures had ancient faded sigils on their armor but couldn't be seen except up close. I then had Ruthven detail some the what he had seen to the Count, who offered to research the names and backgrounds of the riders that moved against them.
Plan for the Lich I'm thinking that this Lich is the same one destroyed by the Kindlersons from my earlier thread about the 13 mansions between Ardis and Feldgrau. I also want my PCs to destroy this LIch 2d4 days before arriving in Renchurch so she can be the Lich who is reforming in the chamber of phylacteries.
This suggestion is coming a bit late, but perhaps you can use it later in your game.
Use the Shrieking Sovereign.
The Whispering Tyrant personally killed, then reanimated the last of the Ustalav kings. He then dressed him up like a demented court jester and sent him to hang himself on the tallest spire of his capital, there to dangle and shout blasphemy and abuse at his subjects.
Build a ghast with lots of celebrity archetype bard levels and a jester’s scepter that is a Rod of Therenodic Metamagic--this will let him cast mind-affecting spells like Good Hope, Rage and Timely Inspiration on his undead companions--and plenty of charisma, to boost his spell DCs and hit points.
That's really good, I may have to use that yet.
I did come across one other name, the first count of Grodlych, an excommunicated priest of Pharasma named Laudmeir Vandolmayne.