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  1. #1
    Senior Member cccpxepoj's Avatar
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    Shadow World and Aebrynis

    Hi i have a question ?
    On my last game session, my players had some tough encounter with a horde of goblins, in this encounter they used necromancy spells, (one spell slowly drained life from 20 goblins and dozen of worgs), the spell levels are only 2, but they casted it on eve of winter and in the heart of the wilderness, in a region doted with shrines to goblin and orog deities.
    Know wot is troubling me, is haw to determine the risk of breaching the barrier between words ?

  2. #2
    Senior Member Elton Robb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cccpxepoj View Post
    Hi i have a question ?
    On my last game session, my players had some tough encounter with a horde of goblins, in this encounter they used necromancy spells, (one spell slowly drained life from 20 goblins and dozen of worgs), the spell levels are only 2, but they casted it on eve of winter and in the heart of the wilderness, in a region doted with shrines to goblin and orog deities.
    Know wot is troubling me, is haw to determine the risk of breaching the barrier between words ?
    I'd say that you could roll a die, and on a high roll the denizens of the Shadow World are attracted by the necromantic use of the magic. They could open a portal and spill into the Real World.
    Regent of Medoere

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    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    There is breaching and breaching. So the goblins might rise as undead to wreak vengeance on their slayers if the veil was slightly breached, or something godawful might come out if the battle-site was where the local coven of Azrai sacrifice their victims leaving the veil already weak.

    Then there is emotions and intent. Did your PC drain the life of the goblins mainly for the joy of seeing them die agonizing deaths, or dispassionately as a means of efficiently killing them - I'd expect strong emotions to encourage a breach on the veil as it is a place of spirits and dreams.

    Most importantly of all though, will it be fun, will the players see it as unfair 'punishment', will it slow down the adventure? Would it be more fun for them to be tracked down by an angry priest of Ruornil for being so reckless rather than face something from the other side? Might they find that while nothing physical crossed they were cursed by something on the other side and so in need of removing the curse or finding a way to identify and summon the beast to destroy it?
    Last edited by AndrewTall; 02-13-2011 at 10:26 AM. Reason: pedantry

  4. #4
    Senior Member cccpxepoj's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    There is breaching and breaching. So the goblins might rise as undead to wreak vengeance on their slayers if the veil was slightly breached, or something godawful might come out if the battlesite was where the local coven of Azrai sacrifice their victims leaving the veil already weak.
    the whole province has a week veil, because the goblins are performing blood sacrifices every day, and the players knew that.

    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    Then there is emotions and intent. Did your PC drain the life of the goblins mainly for the joy of seeing them die agonizing deaths, or dispassionately as a means of efficiently killing them - I'd expect strong emotions to encourage a breach on the veil as it is a place of spirits and dreams.
    they used the spell as an means to an end, they had no real joy from the use of a necromancy, but they are an party of oportunists, some of them are evil, and have no remorse. The priest who used the spell( from the scroll) is a priest of Eloele.

    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    Most importantly of all though, will it be fun, will the players see it as unfair 'punishment', will it slow down the adventure? Would it be more fun for them to be tracked down by an angry priest of Ruornil for being so reckless rather than face something from the other side? Might they find that while nothing physical crossed they were cursed by something on the other side and so in need of removing the curse or finding a way to identify and summon th beast to destroy it?
    nice ideas thanx, if they breach the veil, they will have more problems then just the one angry priest.

  5. #5
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    At 05:24 PM 2/11/2011, cccpxepoj wrote:

    >On my last game session, my players had some tough encounter with a
    >horde of goblins, in this encounter they used necromancy spells,
    >(one spell slowly drained life from 20 goblins and dozen of worgs),
    >the spell levels are only 2, but they casted it on eve of winter and
    >in the heart of the wilderness, in a region doted with shrines to
    >goblin and orog deities.
    >Know wot is troubling me, is haw to determine the risk of breaching
    >the barrier between words ?

    As an adventure hook/consequence, breaching the barrier sounds like a
    really good adventure idea to me. We don`t really have much
    precedence for such a thing being expounded upon by BR fans, but the
    situation you describe does seem to go, thematically, with the
    materials we do have. I`d suggest going through Blood Spawn for
    ideas on how to deal with the SW. You never know what kind of
    inspiration you might get from seeing how that stuff is handled in that text.

    It sounds to me like you`ve already done a little work on determining
    how the SW might influence things in the world of light with the
    expansion of the 2nd level spell into a much more powerful
    effect. Unless I`m missing how that was done, I think you`ve already
    set up that the SW was breached. Otherwise, where did the additional
    power come from that made a 2nd level spell affect so many NPCs and
    so dramatically? The players might have like the effect, but not
    realized that they are going to have to deal with the consequences.....

    So, off the cuff, I`d suggest that you consider their efforts as
    having created a temporary or recurring door into the SW. The
    appearance of such a door need not be immediately obvious, though, so
    you don`t have to worry about having effects occur after the
    encounter is over, or even until after the adventure is over. Such a
    thing could be handled in any number of ways, but the most obvious
    are that something might come through or the players enter/get sucked
    in. In addition, magical power might flow through the gate in either
    direction, the door might attract the attention of a powerful
    character from Aebrynis whom the PCs will have to deal, or they might
    have to go on a follow up adventure (or more than one) to close that door.

    Hope that helps,
    Gary

  6. #6
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    Some people might of course like the veil being weakened:

    - a real old-school 'raise legions of dead to conquer the world bwahahaha' type necromancer might be thrilled to know that an awnmebhaighl source is forming in the province.

    - a lich trapped in Cerilia might see the weakened veil as a way home - they just need to get there (with their retinue of mind-thralls and mutated minions of course, one of their stature does not travel alone) - even if they mean no harm will the local lords just let a few thousand undead march across their lands?

    - a bereaved spouse /parent grieving for a child may seek to cross the veil and bring their loved one back to the world of the living.

    - a clan of gnomes/seelie/etc may see the weakened veil as an escape from the shadow world and come seeking refuge - some living room perhaps. Of course they still have much of their magic and probably don't worship the gods of light meaning that the local church may not approve of them.


    Then there is general weirdness:

    - Perhaps dreams become much more vivid and real as the dream-world is so close.

    - Perhaps people meet in dreams and then seek each other out for Romeo & Juliet style tragedy as love/etc crosses social class, perhaps even affecting someone outside the province, there plenty of scope for forbidden love now that physical barriers mean nothing!

    - Perhaps a forbidden planet style effect where the nightmares or fantasy-revenge dreams of one person start affecting others in the waking world.

    - Perhaps death's door could reduce from -10 to -5 as the Shadow world is so close, or perhaps those who reach it are affected slightly even after they are healed.

    - Perhaps ley-lines crossing the province might become contaminated by awnmebhaighl, strengthen or weaken randomly as mebhaighl pours in/out of the Shadow World, break, form, or form strange weather such as a ley-storm.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Elton Robb's Avatar
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    There is a book I have called "Nightmares of Mine" that talks about running horror themes. With a weakening of the Veil, you have an opportunity to introduce real horror in other ways.
    Regent of Medoere

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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    Some people might of course like the veil being weakened:- Perhaps death's door could reduce from -10 to -5 as the Shadow world is so close, or perhaps those who reach it are affected slightly even after they are healed.
    I like this idea a lot; maybe when a character drops to death's door they emerge in the Shadow World until healed. This could lead to neat things like a cleric or necromancer in the Shadow World who then "damages" the Shadow-version back into "life."

    I could see a style of necromancer who would want to spend all their time in the Shadow World. The necromancer's adventuring party could mark a target somehow and the necromancer could draw the targets spirit to the Shadow World to properly destroy, imprison, or defeat the target.

    - a clan of gnomes/seelie/etc may see the weakened veil as an escape from the shadow world and come seeking refuge - some living room perhaps. Of course they still have much of their magic and probably don't worship the gods of light meaning that the local church may not approve of them.
    This has infinite possibilities for adventure hooks. Some like the OP described with an Animate Dead spell being used on a special sight or special night could bring the attention of creatures native to the Shadow World. I am not sure if anyone is into 2nd edition but TSR 2173 Monstrous Compendium volume IV has stats for an Unseelie Nymph that is very brutal.

    In my games I always like to get the players nice and comfortable before introducing something major. I like to let the players get a feel for their kingdom; let them be king of the castle for awhile. Then comes someone like the Baron of Ghoere. When the king is able to defeat the next challenge; then comes the Gorgon. And if the king can fend of the powerful fiends of the land; then remind the king of the Cold Rider. Birthright is a fine setting with able adventures hooks and powerful enemies which can get progressively harder and harder. So my point is, when it comes to the Shadow World do not undercover it.

    I like the idea that the Shadow World contains a shadow-copy of the regular world and the realms of the Birthright gods. I also like the idea that it is quicker to travel across the Shadow World then the regular world so high-level players have a dangerous but quicker path places; ups the simple danger of walking around.
    Last edited by AndrewTall; 03-30-2011 at 07:17 PM. Reason: correct quote

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