Temple of Rilni

[Michael Cullingham]

Hi all,

I've recently been wondering a little about the Temple of Rilni. One of the
characters in my campaign, a Necromancer, recently caused a little bit of
chaos in the Imperial City by casting some not so subtle Necromancy spells.
I've been toying with the idea that this has attracted the attention of the
Temple of Rilni.

So far, I've come up with the idea that the Temple desires to capture the
Necromancer and bring him to Mairada, where they believe he'll swear to the
Five Oaths or die.

In order to do this, they'll send two Priest/Wizards (their elite
"bloodhounds") who'll disable his use of magic (through a Collar of Magic
Dampening or some such method) and drag him back to the Temple where he'll
await a full moon for the ceremony.

Of course, not wanting to destroy the character entirely, I'd allow the
other characters to perform the Over The Top Climactic Rescue (TM).

During the rescue, I'm also toying with the idea of some hypocrisy behind
the workings of the temple, such as a closet necromancer that claims to the
others that he'll destroy blasphemous necromantic writings and objects when
in reality he's keeping them for himself.

Maybe one of the Magian's agents or something. Hmmm, a lich seeking to
eliminate necromancy because it might be able to control or defeat him? And
of course, anyone who discovered him he'd kill. And the priests would be
forbidden from speaking with the dead, so they'd never know.

So, I'm wondering if anybody's done any work on the Temple of Rilni? Any
info, musings, or ideas about the layout of the temple and its defences, the
power of the priests, the ceremony of swearing the oaths, etc. would be
greatly appreciated.

mike


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[Michael Cullingham]

> Oh god I hate hearing about the five oaths. OK, a big hole in this plot
>is that the wizard in question does not appear to be Khinasi, and therefore
>the five oaths do not apply to him. Those are part of khinasi culture more
>than anything having to do with the priests, I think. As a matter of fact,
>if the western temples of Rilni _did_ bring some Anuirean before the temple
>in Mairada (I think), they'd probably be laughed out of the building and
>told to handle their own problems.

Good points. Unfortunately, I'm not easily dissuaded from developing the
plotline. Guess I have a little (read: a lot of) stubbornness. So I guess
I have to give the temple a more personal reason for wanting this
necromancer in particular. Something to distract them from searching for
Quirad Al-Dinn.

As for the western temples of Ruornil, IMC they don't at all see eye-to-eye
so they definitely wouldn't even think about wasting their time with the
oaths. In this, I wholeheartedly agree.

IMC, the veil between the Shadow World and Cerilia is weakening due to the
actions of several awnshegh (Vampire, El Sheighul, Magian). I guess I was
too eagerly anticipating the Essence of Evil storyline and started dropping
clues towards it. Strangely enough, the players were more interested in
happenings in the Khinasi lands and the Lost than in any of the other dozen
plotlines I hinted at.

Getting a little off the topic of my original post, it's too bad that the
Shadow World products were the ones in development when Birthright was put
on hiatus, since IMO a gamer considering Birthright would be more drawn to a
campaign world that included a title like "Blood Spawn" than "Secrets of
Binsada" (for example).

mike


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[Daniel McSorley]

From: Michael Cullingham

>I've recently been wondering a little about the Temple of Rilni. One of
the
>characters in my campaign, a Necromancer, recently caused a little bit of
>chaos in the Imperial City by casting some not so subtle Necromancy spells.
>I've been toying with the idea that this has attracted the attention of the
>Temple of Rilni.
>
>So far, I've come up with the idea that the Temple desires to capture the
>Necromancer and bring him to Mairada, where they believe he'll swear to the
>Five Oaths or die.
>
Oh god I hate hearing about the five oaths. OK, a big hole in this plot
is that the wizard in question does not appear to be Khinasi, and therefore
the five oaths do not apply to him. Those are part of khinasi culture more
than anything having to do with the priests, I think. As a matter of fact,
if the western temples of Rilni _did_ bring some Anuirean before the temple
in Mairada (I think), they'd probably be laughed out of the building and
told to handle their own problems.
- --
Daniel McSorley- mcsorley.1@osu.edu
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~mcsorley/

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[Daniel McSorley]

From: Michael Cullingham

>IMC, the veil between the Shadow World and Cerilia is weakening due to the
>actions of several awnshegh (Vampire, El Sheighul, Magian). I guess I was
>too eagerly anticipating the Essence of Evil storyline and started dropping
>clues towards it. Strangely enough, the players were more interested in
>happenings in the Khinasi lands and the Lost than in any of the other dozen
>plotlines I hinted at.
>

So, um, make the awnshegh be working with the lost (El-Sheighul is one
for sure anyway, right?) and you can link your original plot back in there.
- --
Daniel McSorley- mcsorley.1@osu.edu
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~mcsorley/

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[geeman]

Michael Cullingham wrote:

> > Oh god I hate hearing about the five oaths. OK, a big hole in this plot
> >is that the wizard in question does not appear to be Khinasi, and therefore
> >the five oaths do not apply to him. Those are part of khinasi culture more
> >than anything having to do with the priests, I think. As a matter of fact,
> >if the western temples of Rilni _did_ bring some Anuirean before the temple
> >in Mairada (I think), they'd probably be laughed out of the building and
> >told to handle their own problems.
>
> Good points. Unfortunately, I'm not easily dissuaded from developing the
> plotline. Guess I have a little (read: a lot of) stubbornness. So I guess
> I have to give the temple a more personal reason for wanting this
> necromancer in particular. Something to distract them from searching for
> Quirad Al-Dinn.

How about this? The Temple of Rilni is trying to expand their philosophy by
showing those backward Anuireans how wise and prudent the Five Oaths are. A
new, young regent has taken over that temple, maybe he has some Anuirean blood
or something, and he has decided to use the flagrant necromantic spell use in
the Imperial City as a PR event and go after the PC on that basis.

Gary
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[Pieter Sleijpen]

Daniel McSorley wrote:
>
> As a matter of fact, if the western temples of Rilni _did_ bring some
> Anuirean before the temple in Mairada (I think), they'd probably be
> laughed out of the building and told to handle their own problems.

Would they? I agree that most Anuireans, if any, would not even concider
it. But the temple itself? It is the chance to spread their philosophies
over Cerilia and increase the power of Rilni with it.

Of coarse, they might be fair enough to point out that the 5 Oaths do
not mean a protection against necromantic magic. It only forbids the use
of animating dead and speaking with them. Any other necromantic magic
would be still open. Then again, the wizard has to follow the orders of
the local ruler and can not attack wizards unless in self-defence or on
orders from the local wizard. That should give the Anuireans some way to
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