Undying: A Ravenloft Conversion - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 27, 2005 1:08:10	Other thread is here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=8091860 I am attempting to start a Ravenloft campaign; however, I wrestle with the problem of having a player who's played there before, and I needed some tamer NPC BBEGs for my party to take on. I needed something new and original. While I was thinking this, a song got stuck in my head. When I remembered what it was, I hit upon the solution: It was the theme to the video game Clive Barker's Undying. (You can find out more about the game here.) The long and short of it is, I'd like to make the Covenant estate a Dark Realm, with the Undead King as Darklord. I've got a few things figured out so far, which I will list below. Past that, I need help. That's where you fellows come in. I'm posting this in two places: the d20 Video Games board, and the Ravenloft boards, because I feel I need input from both parties. The link at the top of this post will take you to whichever thread you're not reading. (Yes, I copy-pasted this, deal.) All WotC material, including Dragon is allowed, and of course all the latest Sword & Sorcery supplements -- but try to stay within the bounds of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting; I'm poor. Thanks in advance! ---------- NOTE: MAJOR GAME SPOILERS FOLLOW!!! THE DOMAIN Covenant Cultural Level: Rennaisance (9). Landscape: Full Ecology (Temperate Grassland, Forest, Hills and Sea). Covenant is mostly two penninsulas, the bay between them, and the two main islands in the bay, along with a few small islets. The whole domain is only a few miles wide at best, with a handful of hamlets dotting the east. (Map here.) There are several locations of interest in Covenant, but the two foremost are Covenant Manor and the Standing Stones. Covenant Manor Covenant Manor was transported to Ravenloft along with the Covenants. It is a cursed place, with twisting halls filled with evil creatures, and haunted by the four undead siblings of Jeremiah Covenant, the last surviving member of the Covenant Family. Scenes and sounds from the past haunt the manor, and even the most cursory divination spells uncover them. Because of this evil infection, and the presence of the four Covenant siblings, Covenant Manor is a rank 3 sinkhole of evil. (Does this deserve higher?) The Standing Stones MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS!!! Long ago, before the Covenant estate became part of Ravenloft, an evil group of druids inhabited the land. There was also a gate, or portal of some kind, to a place so evil that it had to be sealed at all costs. So the druids made a sacrifice: upon the site of the portal, a human sacrifice was offered up. A man was buiried alive, with a scythe laid across him. However, this did not entirely seal the portal, for a millenium later some monks from the monastery to the south (now ruined) exhumed the tomb and unsealed the portal. Since then, an evil force has attempted to break through. This force is the Undying King, and he is very close to suceeding... By itself, the Standing Stones and indeed the entire island is a rank 4 sinkhole of evil. ("Ritual sacrifice" is even given as an example!) However, due to the fact that Covenant's Darklord is trapped beneath it and is therefore omnipresent, it carries an effective rank of 5. Because of these two areas, magic is highly pervasive in Covenant -- for Ravenloft, anyway. Most villagers have seen magic at least once in their lives, and legends of the old druidic order still infest the area. Every so often, a new druid will arise -- along with a cleric following in the monastery's footsteps, a sorcerer of the line of an ancient druid, or a wizard attempting to harness Covenant's abundant magical power. Major Settlements: None, per se; however, a number of servants occupy Covenant Manner, enough to render it technically a hamlet. (Population 10, GP limit -- [no shops.]) There are also a few hamlets on the outlying edges of the domain, enough to render Covenant large enough ot be considered a domain. (This could be done better.) The Folk: Unknown; Covenant Manner houses a few servants, but there are an unknown number of humans -- the Trsanti -- wandering the area, mostly under the rule of Ambrose Covenant. The outlying hamlets measure about 150 in total.(This also.) The Law: No formal government. Jeremiah is the "head of household," but no mechanism exists for governemnt outside that -- the Trsanti are arranged in a loose tribe, led by Ambrose, and the Undying King works behind the scenes. The outlying hamlets are mostly self-governed. Trade and Diplomacy: Resources -- wheat, barley, cattle, iron. Coinage -- pound (gp), shilling (sp), penny (plual pence - cp). The hamlets produce little -- there are only two iron mines in all of Covenant -- and most of what they do produce is consumed by the hamlets themselves. Covenant Manor and all the outlying locations produce nothing. Characters: Classes -- Clerics, Druids, Fighters, Rogues, Sorcerers, Wizards. Skills -- Craft (Any smithing, carpentry), Knowledge (Arcana, religion), Profession (brewer, farmer, herdsman, miner). Feats -- Skill Focus (Craft or Profession) (this needs fleshing out.)
#2 zombiegleemax Dec 27, 2005 16:41:57	Lizbeth needs to be one level higher (else she'd just be a spawn). Before you continue this, ask yourself the following questions: 1) Do I want to run this? (will it bore you after a while, etc.) 2) Have any of my PCs played this? (if so, ask yourself How can I mess with them through metagame changes?) 3) How accurate to the (video)game do I want to be? (example: Lizbeth having obvious fangs and covered in blood is, well, obvious...if you change that, it could be more ravenloft...of course, when she surprise attacks a PC, there's a good chance her appearence will be as prescribed above after the surprise round, or as the PC will call it "where did my Con go?") also, ultimate power in Ravenloft is the dark powers...perhaps the "undying king" is them? Maybe it's Azalin, using legends from their land, and their ritual, as a way to try to escape... note: never played the game, so.
#3 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 27, 2005 17:34:33	First off, h*lls yes, no, and as close as possible, respectively. Second, from someone who's never played the game, that is a BRILLIANT idea. About Azalin, I mean. I'm gonna implement that above. This also frees up the CR slot I wanna use for Bethany for... well, Bethany.
#4 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 27, 2005 23:14:07	Updated with new things.
#5 thanael Dec 28, 2005 8:11:43	First off note that I know nothing about that game except what you told in your first post. If you could give a few more hints about the skills/powers each of the NPcs displays in the game that would help. But here are a few thoughts: What do you mean by corpse? The corpse creature template? You already mentioned BOVD for Ambrose so how about some levels of Warrior of Darkness? He would have to be moderately intelligent to qualify with Brb5 or perhaps multiclassed as Ari2/Brb4 to gain Knowledge as a class skill and literacy. WoD lvl2 would be nice to gain Darkling Weapon. After your description of (the elder) Jeremiah as an occultist I would build him as a wizard (or perhaps even cleric or mystic theurge) and demonologist or perhaps ur-priest (both from BoVD).
#6 humanbing Dec 29, 2005 5:39:50	I've played Undying and I loved it. I also play a lot of D&D (though new to 3rd ed.). IMO, the video game had great plot promise, while the boss battles were a let down. Lisbeth was an interesting battle, but Ambrose and Aaron were not (both were too dependent on making the boss invincible until a single scripted event happened - which you didn't even instigate!). If it were me, I would consider making all the Covenant siblings unbeatable unless the PCs can discover the items of significance in their life, which is repellent and unbearable to their undead state. Perhaps Lisbeth's item of aversion is her mother's pearl necklace (referred to in one of the journal entries), and if you carry this with the Scythe of the Celt, you can injure her. Also, making Aaron a "harmless" ghost is a mistake, I think. He interferes with Patrick Galloway a lot in the video game, and one reason why he's so hard to deal with is precisely because he's invincible - you can only keep him down with a Soul Trap. Using this judiciously can help you keep some areas off-bounds to the PCs (because Aaron's guarding them) without resorting to the very linear style of level design that Undying's programmers used. The actual battle between Aaron and the PCs might be better staged so that instead of him standing on a plinth and getting trapped in chains, he is much more mobile, using his chains to swing around in a multi-level arena. If the fight takes place in a ruined church house or mausoleum, there's significant possibilities for Aaron to be much more mobile than the PCs are - unless you give them a jump spell or something similar. Perhaps his own jawbone would be his aversion item. Ambrose also was a controversial fight. In the game, you just sat back and let the dogs take him before you made your move. Maybe in this incarnation, you need some item from a man he murdered - the boxing gloves of the strong-man in the travelling show could be an item of aversion for him (not so much that Ambrose can't stand it, but that the vengeful spirit of the strong-man gives the PC the power to injure Ambrose). Otto Kelsinger should definitely be available - if the PCs can ransack his magical library, it can be a good staging point to gear them up for the fight against Bethany. I'd make him a very powerful mage (perhaps with a few prestige class levels in Archmage) with the balancing factor being that he has no immunity as per aversion - anybody can hurt him. (And if the PCs are smart, they can even get a few avian allies in the city of Oneiros to fight him psionically...) I don't know how you'd handle the fight against Bethany. Perhaps you could do the old trick of having a powerful spellcaster atop some sort of altar drawing power from magical sources, and if the PCs can disrupt the sources, it reduces her power? Bethany likes to summon the giant squids and floating sisters. Perhaps if the PCs can disenchant the two altars, she loses those powers respectively and has to rely on her own magic to attack the PCs. As far as Jeremiah goes, I think the game had him scripted too much. As Bethany dies, she could tell the PCs about the threat her eldest brother poses, or say something epic about how he was "first in death, and first always in power" or something. Give the PCs a breakneck chase past guards and Howlers to his bedroom, only to find him gone and the window shattered. They can chase him to the Circle of Stones where you can either have them fight him one on one, or have him start a battle with the Undying King. Jeremiah is given very little monstrous to do, so we don't have any idea what his true nature is like. Perhaps you could demonstrate his power indirectly, by having mightly enemies that the PCs destroyed with great difficulty, lying dead by the roadside as they follow him to the Circle of Stones. Once there, if you don't want to come up with an approximation of who he is or what he can do, simply have him complete the ritual to invoke the Undying King - and then have the Undying King appear and swallow him whole. That should give the PCs pause... Personally, the Undying King was my least favorite boss. Tactically, once you got its rhythm down, it posed no challenge at all and quickly grew tiresome to fight. Plotwise, it doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the game. No steles, tablets, carvings, or anything else hints at what it is and it just feels like something bizarre and tacked on. Depending on what you choose, you may want to drop hints and clues as to what this final boss is. One suggestion is to make it Gloom, the male shadow dragon that lives in the Nyid mountain range in Darkon. Gloom has a history of world-walking through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Underdark, and ever since he met Ebb, the female shadow dragon, he's been looking for a place of their own and may stumble into the Covenant estate. If you place earlier references to snakes and coils in texts and carvings, etc., or pictures of claws arising from the ground, that may make Gloom's appearance more believable. Indeed, Gloom could have been sent to this pocket Island of Terror by Azalin's decree, which would truly make him an agent of "The Undying King". Even if the PCs defeat Gloom or force him back into the catacombs beneath the ruins to retreat back to Darkon, the ending from the video game can be used... the PCs now know they have led Azalin's forces straight to the Covenant island and may have added to his power. This could be even more powerful a statement if you run this adventure similar to Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill (the old AD&D 1st ed. adventure). In that adventure, the realm of Mordent was originally not in the Demiplane of Dread - by the time Azalin and Strahd have finished with it, it's a core domain! Hope these ideas help and I look forward to seeing your adventure grow and thrive!
#7 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 29, 2005 14:56:03	Wow, thanks for the great ideas! By "harmless," I meant incapable of physical damage. Oh, certainly, he'll be a bother, but in his non-revenant form he can't directly hurt the PCs. I have to say, I agree with you on the boss fights -- in fact, I didn't really like any of them, but then, it's an FPS, what can you do. The idea is to have them actually use the powers that they would have as those creatures. For instance, there'll be no dog with Ambrose, so therefore they'll have to actually kill the b*stard in combat -- IE, subdue him until they can scythe him. Aaron's gonna be simple -- spiked chain fighter. :D However, the chain brachiation is definitely a cool idea. It'll actually let me use the rules for multi-level platforms. :D Ambrose: Barbarian. Possibly Frenzied Berserker. I don't know about Keisinger. What I might do is have Oneiros a domain linked to Covenant, but Ican't do another plane. Maybe a dreamscape... Bethany's actually easy. Just have her be a Wizard (or maybe Sorcerer) with a few levels of Alienist. The big, big problem is that we never see what Jeremiah does. We have no idea what he can do except regenerate himself. As for the Undying King, well... they won't even see it coming. I do like the breakneck chase of Howlers. BTW, what do you think for them? Corrupted dogs?
#8 humanbing Dec 29, 2005 16:39:59	You could probably just get away with some sort of caliban or possibly lycanthrope template. I'd be tempted to even make up a hound-were creature - a degenerate mix of hound and man that can never fully shapechange to either.
#9 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 29, 2005 23:17:36	Ker-update -- Howlers there, just went the simple route.
#10 buried_by_books Dec 30, 2005 6:14:37	(You may already know this but...) there are some free sample tracks from the soundtrack on Bill Brown's website (in fact there's a whole lot of free MP3s from various projects on which he has worked): http://billbrownmusic.com/musicG4.htm#Undying It's probably only ten minutes of music all told, but they could be mixed up with some other suitable tunes -- if background music is to your taste. Cheers D.
#11 sabbattack Dec 30, 2005 6:20:28	Brilliantly Incredible. It's so good it forced me to de-lurk!!! I loved undying. Loved it to the very end. Especially the fact that it had a ready-to-use "see ethereal ressonance" built in it made it scream RAVENLOFT. However....The whole setting would unleash its full potential by a transfer to a Gothic Earth setting (about late 19th century at least), since it's more "Lovecraftesque" than Gothic. All in All, your job is great. I'm sorry i have no time to reply with ideas right now. Too many College assignments underway... :embarrass Please keep us updated. I'll be back with more soon.
#12 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 30, 2005 22:58:12	Actually, you did give me an idea there: how to do scrye!
#13 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 30, 2005 23:59:11	Update! We have a spell, gentlemen! Now I'm off to find what book a Revenant is actually in! Tata! EDIT: Huzzah! I've found them! This means that Bethany and Aaron may actually be finished by tonight!
#14 tsuyoshikentsu Dec 31, 2005 0:56:29	Yes, yes, multiple posts... but multiple updates as well. Finished all the Covenants except Jeremiah. While I was doing Jeremiah, I was wondering... maybe Eternal Autumn should be a seperate domain, with Bethany as darklord?
#15 humanbing Dec 31, 2005 4:31:42	Eternal Autumn would work well that way - you could make it a backwards Island of Terror that could only be reached by a Mistway located in Bethany's side of the Covenant estate. Oneiros also might be a similar (although more outworldly) Island of Terror. Remember that as the individuals get more and more screwed up in terms of power and evil, the more likely it is that they can strike out on their own and discover new lands to terrorize. In this case, it could be that one of the motivations for the PCs is to stop the spread of the Covenant family before they spawn a set of five separate Darklords!

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 27, 2005 1:08:10

Other thread is here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=8091860

I am attempting to start a Ravenloft campaign; however, I wrestle with the problem of having a player who's played there before, and I needed some tamer NPC BBEGs for my party to take on. I needed something new and original. While I was thinking this, a song got stuck in my head. When I remembered what it was, I hit upon the solution:

It was the theme to the video game Clive Barker's Undying.

(You can find out more about the game here.)

The long and short of it is, I'd like to make the Covenant estate a Dark Realm, with the Undead King as Darklord. I've got a few things figured out so far, which I will list below. Past that, I need help.

That's where you fellows come in.

I'm posting this in two places: the d20 Video Games board, and the Ravenloft boards, because I feel I need input from both parties. The link at the top of this post will take you to whichever thread you're not reading. (Yes, I copy-pasted this, deal.) All WotC material, including Dragon is allowed, and of course all the latest Sword & Sorcery supplements -- but try to stay within the bounds of the Ravenloft Campaign Setting; I'm poor.

Thanks in advance!

----------

NOTE: MAJOR GAME SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!

THE DOMAIN

Covenant

Cultural Level: Rennaisance (9).

Landscape: Full Ecology (Temperate Grassland, Forest, Hills and Sea). Covenant is mostly two penninsulas, the bay between them, and the two main islands in the bay, along with a few small islets. The whole domain is only a few miles wide at best, with a handful of hamlets dotting the east. (Map here.) There are several locations of interest in Covenant, but the two foremost are Covenant Manor and the Standing Stones.

Covenant Manor

Covenant Manor was transported to Ravenloft along with the Covenants. It is a cursed place, with twisting halls filled with evil creatures, and haunted by the four undead siblings of Jeremiah Covenant, the last surviving member of the Covenant Family. Scenes and sounds from the past haunt the manor, and even the most cursory divination spells uncover them. Because of this evil infection, and the presence of the four Covenant siblings, Covenant Manor is a rank 3 sinkhole of evil. (Does this deserve higher?)

The Standing Stones

MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS!!!

Long ago, before the Covenant estate became part of Ravenloft, an evil group of druids inhabited the land. There was also a gate, or portal of some kind, to a place so evil that it had to be sealed at all costs. So the druids made a sacrifice: upon the site of the portal, a human sacrifice was offered up. A man was buiried alive, with a scythe laid across him. However, this did not entirely seal the portal, for a millenium later some monks from the monastery to the south (now ruined) exhumed the tomb and unsealed the portal. Since then, an evil force has attempted to break through. This force is the Undying King, and he is very close to suceeding...

By itself, the Standing Stones and indeed the entire island is a rank 4 sinkhole of evil. ("Ritual sacrifice" is even given as an example!) However, due to the fact that Covenant's Darklord is trapped beneath it and is therefore omnipresent, it carries an effective rank of 5.

Because of these two areas, magic is highly pervasive in Covenant -- for Ravenloft, anyway. Most villagers have seen magic at least once in their lives, and legends of the old druidic order still infest the area. Every so often, a new druid will arise -- along with a cleric following in the monastery's footsteps, a sorcerer of the line of an ancient druid, or a wizard attempting to harness Covenant's abundant magical power.

Major Settlements: None, per se; however, a number of servants occupy Covenant Manner, enough to render it technically a hamlet. (Population 10, GP limit -- [no shops.]) There are also a few hamlets on the outlying edges of the domain, enough to render Covenant large enough ot be considered a domain. (This could be done better.)

The Folk: Unknown; Covenant Manner houses a few servants, but there are an unknown number of humans -- the Trsanti -- wandering the area, mostly under the rule of Ambrose Covenant. The outlying hamlets measure about 150 in total.(This also.)

The Law: No formal government. Jeremiah is the "head of household," but no mechanism exists for governemnt outside that -- the Trsanti are arranged in a loose tribe, led by Ambrose, and the Undying King works behind the scenes. The outlying hamlets are mostly self-governed.

Trade and Diplomacy: Resources -- wheat, barley, cattle, iron. Coinage -- pound (gp), shilling (sp), penny (plual pence - cp).

The hamlets produce little -- there are only two iron mines in all of Covenant -- and most of what they do produce is consumed by the hamlets themselves. Covenant Manor and all the outlying locations produce nothing.

Characters: Classes -- Clerics, Druids, Fighters, Rogues, Sorcerers, Wizards. Skills -- Craft (Any smithing, carpentry), Knowledge (Arcana, religion), Profession (brewer, farmer, herdsman, miner). Feats -- Skill Focus (Craft or Profession) (this needs fleshing out.)

zombiegleemax

Dec 27, 2005 16:41:57

Lizbeth needs to be one level higher (else she'd just be a spawn). Before you continue this, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Do I want to run this? (will it bore you after a while, etc.)
2) Have any of my PCs played this? (if so, ask yourself How can I mess with them through metagame changes?)
3) How accurate to the (video)game do I want to be? (example: Lizbeth having obvious fangs and covered in blood is, well, obvious...if you change that, it could be more ravenloft...of course, when she surprise attacks a PC, there's a good chance her appearence will be as prescribed above after the surprise round, or as the PC will call it "where did my Con go?")

also, ultimate power in Ravenloft is the dark powers...perhaps the "undying king" is them? Maybe it's Azalin, using legends from their land, and their ritual, as a way to try to escape...

note: never played the game, so.

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 27, 2005 17:34:33

First off, h*lls yes, no, and as close as possible, respectively.

Second, from someone who's never played the game, that is a BRILLIANT idea. About Azalin, I mean. I'm gonna implement that above.

This also frees up the CR slot I wanna use for Bethany for... well, Bethany.

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 27, 2005 23:14:07

Updated with new things.

thanael

Dec 28, 2005 8:11:43

First off note that I know nothing about that game except what you told in your first post. If you could give a few more hints about the skills/powers each of the NPcs displays in the game that would help. But here are a few thoughts:

What do you mean by corpse? The corpse creature template?

You already mentioned BOVD for Ambrose so how about some levels of Warrior of Darkness? He would have to be moderately intelligent to qualify with Brb5 or perhaps multiclassed as Ari2/Brb4 to gain Knowledge as a class skill and literacy. WoD lvl2 would be nice to gain Darkling Weapon.

After your description of (the elder) Jeremiah as an occultist I would build him as a wizard (or perhaps even cleric or mystic theurge) and demonologist or perhaps ur-priest (both from BoVD).

humanbing

Dec 29, 2005 5:39:50

I've played Undying and I loved it. I also play a lot of D&D (though new to 3rd ed.).

IMO, the video game had great plot promise, while the boss battles were a let down. Lisbeth was an interesting battle, but Ambrose and Aaron were not (both were too dependent on making the boss invincible until a single scripted event happened - which you didn't even instigate!).

If it were me, I would consider making all the Covenant siblings unbeatable unless the PCs can discover the items of significance in their life, which is repellent and unbearable to their undead state. Perhaps Lisbeth's item of aversion is her mother's pearl necklace (referred to in one of the journal entries), and if you carry this with the Scythe of the Celt, you can injure her.

Also, making Aaron a "harmless" ghost is a mistake, I think. He interferes with Patrick Galloway a lot in the video game, and one reason why he's so hard to deal with is precisely because he's invincible - you can only keep him down with a Soul Trap. Using this judiciously can help you keep some areas off-bounds to the PCs (because Aaron's guarding them) without resorting to the very linear style of level design that Undying's programmers used.

The actual battle between Aaron and the PCs might be better staged so that instead of him standing on a plinth and getting trapped in chains, he is much more mobile, using his chains to swing around in a multi-level arena. If the fight takes place in a ruined church house or mausoleum, there's significant possibilities for Aaron to be much more mobile than the PCs are - unless you give them a jump spell or something similar. Perhaps his own jawbone would be his aversion item.

Ambrose also was a controversial fight. In the game, you just sat back and let the dogs take him before you made your move. Maybe in this incarnation, you need some item from a man he murdered - the boxing gloves of the strong-man in the travelling show could be an item of aversion for him (not so much that Ambrose can't stand it, but that the vengeful spirit of the strong-man gives the PC the power to injure Ambrose).

Otto Kelsinger should definitely be available - if the PCs can ransack his magical library, it can be a good staging point to gear them up for the fight against Bethany. I'd make him a very powerful mage (perhaps with a few prestige class levels in Archmage) with the balancing factor being that he has no immunity as per aversion - anybody can hurt him. (And if the PCs are smart, they can even get a few avian allies in the city of Oneiros to fight him psionically...)

I don't know how you'd handle the fight against Bethany. Perhaps you could do the old trick of having a powerful spellcaster atop some sort of altar drawing power from magical sources, and if the PCs can disrupt the sources, it reduces her power? Bethany likes to summon the giant squids and floating sisters. Perhaps if the PCs can disenchant the two altars, she loses those powers respectively and has to rely on her own magic to attack the PCs.

As far as Jeremiah goes, I think the game had him scripted too much. As Bethany dies, she could tell the PCs about the threat her eldest brother poses, or say something epic about how he was "first in death, and first always in power" or something.

Give the PCs a breakneck chase past guards and Howlers to his bedroom, only to find him gone and the window shattered. They can chase him to the Circle of Stones where you can either have them fight him one on one, or have him start a battle with the Undying King.

Jeremiah is given very little monstrous to do, so we don't have any idea what his true nature is like. Perhaps you could demonstrate his power indirectly, by having mightly enemies that the PCs destroyed with great difficulty, lying dead by the roadside as they follow him to the Circle of Stones. Once there, if you don't want to come up with an approximation of who he is or what he can do, simply have him complete the ritual to invoke the Undying King - and then have the Undying King appear and swallow him whole. That should give the PCs pause...

Personally, the Undying King was my least favorite boss. Tactically, once you got its rhythm down, it posed no challenge at all and quickly grew tiresome to fight. Plotwise, it doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the game. No steles, tablets, carvings, or anything else hints at what it is and it just feels like something bizarre and tacked on.

Depending on what you choose, you may want to drop hints and clues as to what this final boss is. One suggestion is to make it Gloom, the male shadow dragon that lives in the Nyid mountain range in Darkon. Gloom has a history of world-walking through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Underdark, and ever since he met Ebb, the female shadow dragon, he's been looking for a place of their own and may stumble into the Covenant estate.

If you place earlier references to snakes and coils in texts and carvings, etc., or pictures of claws arising from the ground, that may make Gloom's appearance more believable. Indeed, Gloom could have been sent to this pocket Island of Terror by Azalin's decree, which would truly make him an agent of "The Undying King".

Even if the PCs defeat Gloom or force him back into the catacombs beneath the ruins to retreat back to Darkon, the ending from the video game can be used... the PCs now know they have led Azalin's forces straight to the Covenant island and may have added to his power.

This could be even more powerful a statement if you run this adventure similar to Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill (the old AD&D 1st ed. adventure). In that adventure, the realm of Mordent was originally not in the Demiplane of Dread - by the time Azalin and Strahd have finished with it, it's a core domain!

Hope these ideas help and I look forward to seeing your adventure grow and thrive!

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 29, 2005 14:56:03

Wow, thanks for the great ideas!

By "harmless," I meant incapable of physical damage. Oh, certainly, he'll be a bother, but in his non-revenant form he can't directly hurt the PCs.

I have to say, I agree with you on the boss fights -- in fact, I didn't really like any of them, but then, it's an FPS, what can you do. The idea is to have them actually use the powers that they would have as those creatures. For instance, there'll be no dog with Ambrose, so therefore they'll have to actually kill the b*stard in combat -- IE, subdue him until they can scythe him.

Aaron's gonna be simple -- spiked chain fighter. :D However, the chain brachiation is definitely a cool idea. It'll actually let me use the rules for multi-level platforms. :D

Ambrose: Barbarian. Possibly Frenzied Berserker.

I don't know about Keisinger. What I might do is have Oneiros a domain linked to Covenant, but Ican't do another plane. Maybe a dreamscape...

Bethany's actually easy. Just have her be a Wizard (or maybe Sorcerer) with a few levels of Alienist.

The big, big problem is that we never see what Jeremiah does. We have no idea what he can do except regenerate himself.

As for the Undying King, well... they won't even see it coming.

I do like the breakneck chase of Howlers. BTW, what do you think for them? Corrupted dogs?

humanbing

Dec 29, 2005 16:39:59

You could probably just get away with some sort of caliban or possibly lycanthrope template. I'd be tempted to even make up a hound-were creature - a degenerate mix of hound and man that can never fully shapechange to either.

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 29, 2005 23:17:36

Ker-update -- Howlers there, just went the simple route.

#10

buried_by_books

Dec 30, 2005 6:14:37

(You may already know this but...) there are some free sample tracks from the soundtrack on Bill Brown's website (in fact there's a whole lot of free MP3s from various projects on which he has worked):

http://billbrownmusic.com/musicG4.htm#Undying

It's probably only ten minutes of music all told, but they could be mixed up with some other suitable tunes -- if background music is to your taste.

Cheers

D.

#11

sabbattack

Dec 30, 2005 6:20:28

Brilliantly Incredible. It's so good it forced me to de-lurk!!!

I loved undying. Loved it to the very end. Especially the fact that it had a ready-to-use "see ethereal ressonance" built in it made it scream RAVENLOFT.

However....The whole setting would unleash its full potential by a transfer to a Gothic Earth setting (about late 19th century at least), since it's more "Lovecraftesque" than Gothic.

All in All, your job is great. I'm sorry i have no time to reply with ideas right now. Too many College assignments underway... :embarrass

Please keep us updated. I'll be back with more soon.

#12

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 30, 2005 22:58:12

Actually, you did give me an idea there: how to do scrye!

#13

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 30, 2005 23:59:11

Update! We have a spell, gentlemen!

Now I'm off to find what book a Revenant is actually in! Tata!

EDIT: Huzzah! I've found them! This means that Bethany and Aaron may actually be finished by tonight!

#14

tsuyoshikentsu

Dec 31, 2005 0:56:29

Yes, yes, multiple posts... but multiple updates as well. Finished all the Covenants except Jeremiah.

While I was doing Jeremiah, I was wondering... maybe Eternal Autumn should be a seperate domain, with Bethany as darklord?

#15

humanbing

Dec 31, 2005 4:31:42

Eternal Autumn would work well that way - you could make it a backwards Island of Terror that could only be reached by a Mistway located in Bethany's side of the Covenant estate. Oneiros also might be a similar (although more outworldly) Island of Terror. Remember that as the individuals get more and more screwed up in terms of power and evil, the more likely it is that they can strike out on their own and discover new lands to terrorize.

In this case, it could be that one of the motivations for the PCs is to stop the spread of the Covenant family before they spawn a set of five separate Darklords!