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Mongoose
My first "official" Conan session ended last week and I finally finished my second Conan adventure.
My party (I started them off at 2nd level for some effort towards survivability
) managed to defend their outpost and their drunken noble commander against Sagayetha and a party of Pictish warriors on the frontiers of the Westermarck (there should be a thread about it somewhere). To avoid embarassment when the real story came out, the local garison commander gave them an honourable discharge, a purse of coins, and kicked them loose. Cut to three weeks after this series of events. The players have spent most of their coin on loose women and sweet wine (love the high living rule) and are almost broke. Nursing yet another hangover at a lowly dive in northern Aquilonia they are approached by a shadowy figure offering good silver for their use as guards in an expedition to the northeastern parts of the Border Kingdom. The players naturally accepted.
Here is the real story: Assurbanibhal, a Pelishtim sorcerer from far-awat Asgalun, came across a remnant of a parchment detailing the legend of a terrible and vile nigromancer in the northern parts of the Border Kingdom. Some time after that he came across another more recent reference to the same nigromancer, in the same region. But the two sightings were separated by more than 112 years. Truly whoever he might be, he has the secret of eternal, or at least much prolonged, life. Assurbanibhal, a sorcerer of no small means himself is willing to travel up north and discover that secret the old fashioned way; by slaying this necromancer and discovering the secret from his grimoires. He took ship and caravan to the north parts of Aquilonia and is now looking for escorts. Enter the PCs.
What Assurbanibhal does not know however is that this is no mere vile and evil sorcerer. He is the inbred descendant of a family whose roots go back to evil empire of Acheron. White-haired, ivory-skinned, red-eyed, Xaltara is a bona-fide Acheronian sorcerer. Sort of anyways. His family has lived in this area of the Border Kingdom for many centuries, interbreeding until they were nothing than primitive pithecantropoids. But every few generations, one whose bloodlines were pure enough would emerge. He would be capable of learning sorcery and communing with the demons his ancestors worshipped as gods. His one duty would be to stay alive as long as it would take for the next true-blooded Acheronian to emerge and then tutor him in the ways of dark magic.
Needless to say, the adventure will include white-haired ape-men, a village composed solely of comely women used as bait for travellers by Xaltara and breeding stock for his pithecanthropoids, (love that word), a duel between sorcerers, spellbooks of human skin, demons, and a broken fortress with catacombs.
So, any comments, any ideas, anything I should add or omit?
Thanks,
Dimitri
My party (I started them off at 2nd level for some effort towards survivability
) managed to defend their outpost and their drunken noble commander against Sagayetha and a party of Pictish warriors on the frontiers of the Westermarck (there should be a thread about it somewhere). To avoid embarassment when the real story came out, the local garison commander gave them an honourable discharge, a purse of coins, and kicked them loose. Cut to three weeks after this series of events. The players have spent most of their coin on loose women and sweet wine (love the high living rule) and are almost broke. Nursing yet another hangover at a lowly dive in northern Aquilonia they are approached by a shadowy figure offering good silver for their use as guards in an expedition to the northeastern parts of the Border Kingdom. The players naturally accepted.Here is the real story: Assurbanibhal, a Pelishtim sorcerer from far-awat Asgalun, came across a remnant of a parchment detailing the legend of a terrible and vile nigromancer in the northern parts of the Border Kingdom. Some time after that he came across another more recent reference to the same nigromancer, in the same region. But the two sightings were separated by more than 112 years. Truly whoever he might be, he has the secret of eternal, or at least much prolonged, life. Assurbanibhal, a sorcerer of no small means himself is willing to travel up north and discover that secret the old fashioned way; by slaying this necromancer and discovering the secret from his grimoires. He took ship and caravan to the north parts of Aquilonia and is now looking for escorts. Enter the PCs.
What Assurbanibhal does not know however is that this is no mere vile and evil sorcerer. He is the inbred descendant of a family whose roots go back to evil empire of Acheron. White-haired, ivory-skinned, red-eyed, Xaltara is a bona-fide Acheronian sorcerer. Sort of anyways. His family has lived in this area of the Border Kingdom for many centuries, interbreeding until they were nothing than primitive pithecantropoids. But every few generations, one whose bloodlines were pure enough would emerge. He would be capable of learning sorcery and communing with the demons his ancestors worshipped as gods. His one duty would be to stay alive as long as it would take for the next true-blooded Acheronian to emerge and then tutor him in the ways of dark magic.
Needless to say, the adventure will include white-haired ape-men, a village composed solely of comely women used as bait for travellers by Xaltara and breeding stock for his pithecanthropoids, (love that word), a duel between sorcerers, spellbooks of human skin, demons, and a broken fortress with catacombs.
So, any comments, any ideas, anything I should add or omit?
Thanks,
Dimitri
