Thunder Rift: Undead version
by Kyle KnightMy madness is playing up again, so here's the idea so far:
The Dwarves of Hearth-Home have a problem! Three days ago a strange human entered Hearth-Home via the portal-pool, near death and raving about "rebels betrayed to the Undead Liege of Thunder Rift." After gasping those words, the human died of his terrible wounds & the dwarves brought his body to the High Priestess of Melinir, Enora, in the hopes she could either raise him from the dead or speak to his soul. Both attempts failed! By using a Commune spell, Enora learned that the human "wasn't of this existence." The dwarves want a party of adventurers to go thru the portal & investigate.
*The real story: The dead human, Alreishus Breksnuur, came thru the portal from an alternate Thunder Rift. One where undead took over at the end of Sword vs Wand conflict. The undead are led by a powerful Lich (minimum HD) magic-user who keeps the few "living beings" as no better than cattle for his undead to feed on. Small pockets of rebels, no larger than 15-20 people per pocket, have been trying for centuries to overthrow their undead Overlord. Due to a rare Celestial Alignment, the portal opened into the PC's reality & will only stay open another 27 days before closing. (At which point the portal won't open to that reality again for another 3,700 years.) Aside from the Lich, all undead w/in this alternate Thunder Rift range from Skeletons thru Spirits.
*Note: The Ghost ship from In the Phantom's Wake, doesn't exist in the alternate reality. Wizardspire was also completely leveled & the Fighter's Academy was vaporized leaving a massive scorch mark that still is visible almost 2,000 years AFTER the Sword vs Wand conflict. PC's for this adventure should be at minimum Name Level.
If anyone wants to expand on this....feel free to join the madness.
When the PC's reach Hearth-Home, in their reality, they'll learn that a group of dwarven undead came thru the portal led by a Vampire & comprising of Wights & Ghouls. (1 7HD Vampire, 5 5HD Wights & 20 3HD Ghouls) The dwarves managed to confine the undead to Articles stronghold; but, the party will have to deal w/ them before entering the portal.
Hearth-Home in the other reality is ruled by a 12 HD Dwarven "cannibal" Vampire that only drinks dwarven blood. The "known" Elven Undead Lord is a Spectre, while the Gnomish & Hin Undead leaders have never been seen.
The mighty Scorch fell to a horde of energy draining undead 10 years after the end of the Sword vs Wand conflict & his remains where claimed by the Lich to further his magical research.
Here's to sparking more ideas, I hope.