Undead Uprising - What Happens Next

[Stemboy]

I'm GMing a home campaign setting in PF, porting in locations to add to it and using old and new modules and adventures alongside some homebrew stuff. Recently a curveball hit my game when the party ignored a ritual that resulted in about 12,000 people in a city getting transformed into wights (I was running a modified version of The Champion's Games from the Age of Worms). So, I now have 12,000 undead wight in the middle of the 'Free City', which has a remaining populace of 56,000. The party have fled the city post haste, so it's largely up to me how things play out in the city.

I have some ideas, but I wondered if anyone has had anything similar happen before and how they likely see this playing out. In my head, while the city defense will likely rouse several troops who can deal with wights, they won't be able to control the sheer volume running rampant, and your standard city folk and watchmen ain't gonna be able to handle a wight, so they will be fighting a losing battle. This is only gonna only be made worse in that the wights will turn any they kill into wight spawn.

Thoughts?

[LordKailas]

Depending on what resources are available to the city guard and what goals (if any) the wights have. The guard may be able to quarantine that portion of the city until a more permanent solution can be found. Something like creating choke points where the guards can gang up on the few wights that are able to get through. Especially if the wights aren't strongly motivated to leave the quarantined area.

of course there is a tipping point where there are too many and the city gets overrun before such blockades can be put into place. It really depends on the city layout and how long it would take the guard to implement a quarantine. Maybe the city has been lost and it will take a substantial army or other powerful force to cleanse the area of undead, before they spread to neighboring areas.

[EldonGuyre]

What higher level NPCs exist in the city? While average city guard and the like may be able to quarantine, a significant temple to any good god is likely to make a real difference. High enough level arcane casters can simply fly overhead using whatever spells they deem preferable. A paladin might even feel secure enough to wade into the mass of undead, at higher levels.

[Stemboy]

That's true, I haven't given indepth thought to the high levels NPC's in the city, so I'll have to consider how they factor into it. I like the idea of choke points, so I will definitely factor that in to the defense and impact. There is certainly a shock factor to the wight attack, so it is going to take some time for the city to mobilise which will result in further losses, but then they could probably get some defense in place while the more powerful NPC's come out to help.

[EldonGuyre]

Here's another thought on what happens...in the long term. Who all is now dead? Some entire industries may be gone. A whole city in mourning at that level is bound to be hugely significant. Whoever is in charge of the city may make major changes, and be utterly hated, or absolutely loved. They may just feel like it's too much to handle, and simply leave. There could be a rash of suicides, with so many loved ones gone so horribly. Some might even come back as undead!

The possibilities for major changes seems almost limitless. Some will altruistically try to help, while others take advantage of a terrible situation.

[Quixote]

Finding a way to solve the issue before it gets too messy feels like letting the players escape the consequences of their actions.
And logically...I mean. Suddenly, there are 12,000 creatures that HATE living beings with a terrible, consuming passion. And they're right there on the street and in the homes of those people? If each wight turned another person every 5 minutes, that's 48,000 in ten minutes. I feel like that's pretty generous, but let's pull it back even further and say a quarter of the people escaped and 10% of the wights were killed. That's still over 20,000 creatures--between a third and half of the population--that instantly kill most people with a touch and are quite durable and sneaky. In ten minutes. I think the city is lost. Unless the first 12,000 were all captives somehow, or the guard knew what was coming.

From a narrative perspective, I think it's a great opportunity to have a sort of underground resistance fighting a losing war of attrition for survival. Really cool themes there. I'd run with it. The city, practically overnight, becomes a giant mausoleum. A haunted, empty place. Word travels fast that the Free City is now...the City of the Dead? The City of Barrows? The Isle of Wights? Just a lot of rich veins there, now.

[Meirril]

Out of that 56,000 people there are probably about 10% of them that can fight competently against the wights. I don't mean win, I mean put up an actual fight. Like 3rd level NPC classes with actual combat classes. And there should be 1% of the population that are adventurers. And most of those adventurers should be below 5th level. There might be some 15+ adventurers in town...or none. How rare are high level adventurers in your campaign? And those high level adventurers might not be interested in stopping the undead horde. Some might be interested in using it to further their own goals...

Given the size of the city the leader should be somewhere between 10-12th level. Maybe a little higher or lower as demanded by the campaign and setting. His bodyguards should be about the same strength. Most of the rest of the major figures in town should be lower level. General guards are going to be 1-3rd level warriors or fighters. Most will be 3rd level. A few officer types will be higher level.

I think the main thing to keep in mind is how you want this to impact the campaign. It sounds like a big deal, so make it a big deal. Have the city be crippled. First was the wave of undead tearing through the poor section of town where they swelled their numbers on the weak and defenseless. As the more powerful figures in town got organized the section of town the undead first appeared in starts to burn and the fire spreads to the rest of the city as nobody can be spared to fight the fires with the undead everywhere. In the end 30% of the population survived, with most fleeing the city and only about 5,000 remaining in the city itself. The burnt out ruins still have a small number of wights in hiding. Other horrors have emerged in the city, largely due to the massive amount of deaths that suddenly occurred. Several powerful temples have vowed to retake the city. Other more sinister organizations are mobilizing to take advantage of the situation.

[Goblin_Priest]

The city is screwed. Everyone, or just about, will die. Unprepared townsfolk will get rapidly slaughtered, which in turn increases the ranks of the already massive wight force. Any characters strong enough to put off a fight don't have the resources to fight off more than a few dozen, depending on their level. They too will end up dying. The slam attacks have a poor attack bonus, but eventually enough nat 20s will stack, and negative levels will slay their high-leveled victims.

After the city falls, this force can then ravage the entire continent. They are intelligent, and will move in packs. If they organize, the whole world is doomed. Better assume they do not organize. The whole world will need to focus their forces in order to quarantine this blighted city. Flying creatures with breath weapons will be the best way to deal with them, but wights are intelligent and humanoid-shaped, they can and probably should be taking bows and crossbows from those they slay.

A whole society of undead could possibly emerge.

In my mind, there's no way the city should survive this, but you'll have to decide if the wights get organized or not, and if they stay stationary or not, all while remembering that they are intelligent and lawful evil. At best, they stay put and just idle around the city after killing everyone there. At worst, they form a society, organize a military, and assault nearby settlements, with nocturnal raids on unprotected rural settlements to easily bolster their numbers further (and starve the enemy) and brute force assaults to destroy bastions of resistance, leading to a grand apocalypse. Assuming a few got away or died by other means and some got destroyed, 50k creatures with the "create spawn" ability is devastating. In most cases, each wight will presumably create many spawns before biting the dust, and a good chunk of the wights raised will be better than the default stat block because of whatever gear they were carrying when they died.

[Scott Wilhelm]

If the party has abandoned the city, then what happens to it is entirely up to you. It does sound like it has become a city of the dead, now.

Goblin_Priest wrote:

A whole society of undead could possibly emerge.

True. Wights have average intelligence, and they are Lawful Evil. Meanwhile, while they are Undead, they are not immortal, and they have a lot of traits humans have. For instance, they eat and reproduce.

Physically, Wights are juicy, rotting corpses. Generally corpses are reduced to bones within a year, possibly if they say are attacked by insects or in the desert, they stiffen and dessicate in days. The city of Wights must know this, though, and they probably respond accordingly striving to prolong their existence and reproduce as much as they can to ensure their continuation. The energy drain ability seems like it should motivate them to be extremely aggressive in melee and prosecute attacks in single great waves.

It is unclear whether Wights retain their memories of life or retain their levels or classes. It is possible that some of the townsfolk might be spared--enslaved maybe--especially if they have some useful talent or skill, or maybe just because the Wights want to maintain the outward façade of a regular human city. I can picture enslaved low-level Wizards pressed into duty to cast frequent Gentle Repose or Restore Corpse Spells on the Wights. I can see disguised Wights or coerced merchants travelling into neighboring towns selling all manner of trade goods, all of which are tainted with the Wights Accursed Treasure power. So after a good day of sales, whole populations of towns could have negative levels bestowed on them just before the army of Wights attack.

Another reason for the Wights to keep some mortals alive is of course to torture them.

[Stemboy]

Awesome, alot of good food for thought here folks. Really appreciate all the input. Provided the players remain detached from the situation I will likely have the wights takes the city, with a few pockets of resistance for the moment overseen by the few surviving powerful NPC's.

The players home base to the south will likely be their next stop, which given its small size and limited defenses is going to be a struggle, especially given its own problems.

Thanks again!

[Goblin_Priest]

Wight isn't a template, so I wouldn't let them keep anything from their former life, unless special limbs gave them special movement or such.

Left to their own devices, though, I could see a bunch of them gaining class levels on their own. Especially if they organize.

And even if they don't retain their original abilities, the wights of powerful people will be extra dangerous. That level 10 fighter-turned-wight may not keep his 10BAB, but he might still keep his +2 full-plate, his +4 belt of strength, his Boots of Speed, etc., making that 4HD wight much more threatening than the standard CR3 stat block.

[Quixote]

I think I'd probably strike for the middle ground there; in the old stories, wights were the same people they used to be, albeit a much more twisted and malicious version of themselves. Maybe they have memories, but they're vague and confused, all the moment of joy in their life replaced by ones of avarice and hunger.

[VoodistMonk]

The city is doomed.

The king demands his soldiers escort the people out of the city in a complete and immediate evacuation. He does this to both save all he can, and to try limit the spread of this horror.

Churches reluctantly call upon necromancers to help organize a special force to retake the city of the dead.

How many necromancers does it take to control ~48,000HD?

How many channels does it take to drop ~312,000HP?

[Scott Wilhelm]

Goblin_Priest wrote:

Wight isn't a template, so I wouldn't let them keep anything from their former life, unless special limbs gave them special movement or such.

Left to their own devices, though, I could see a bunch of them gaining class levels on their own. Especially if they organize.

And even if they don't retain their original abilities, the wights of powerful people will be extra dangerous. That level 10 fighter-turned-wight may not keep his 10BAB, but he might still keep his +2 full-plate, his +4 belt of strength, his Boots of Speed, etc., making that 4HD wight much more threatening than the standard CR3 stat block.

The GM can make up his own mind about that, or he could just create a boss undead like a Vampire or Lich, or a Human Necromancer.

[Mudfoot]

Bear in mind that a "wight" does not have to be an exact copy of that from the Bestiary. They might have some differences to suit your plot, such as
* unable to create spawn (or spawn are very weak and expire in a day)
* some old class abilities
* vulnerable to daylight
* some motivation based on what created them in the first place
* some vulnerability based on what created them in the first place

Without more data on how and why they were created, it's a bit hard to expand on this. Perhaps this army ignores anything that doesn't get in its way but sets off to a forgotten tomb in the mountains wherein lies something genuinely dangerous.