Okay, some backstory. Skip ahead if you don't care.
This all started with reading Darths and Droids, and their references to Tomb of Horrors, and me wanting to run it for my players just so we can say we did. We've been gaming more or less since high school, over 20 years now, but D&D has never really been our game (two of my players have parents who, sadly, bought into the "D&D is Satanic!" hype). So, getting into 5th to do the Tomb, my players kind of want to run a starter adventure to get a handle on the rules and their characters (and so do I, before tossing them in the proverbial and literal deep end). Since we're essentially making a mini-campaign out of it, I've dusted off an old homebrew setting I made basically for funsies to run it, since I know that world and can at least craft an interesting story of these two, potentially more, adventures.
(Backstory more or less ends.)
The world is called Quatal, is centered around the idea of Good and Evil being in perpetual, never-ending war, and has its own pantheons and kingdoms and so on. One of those kingdoms, firmly on the side of Good, is Dovdonok, ruled over by a family inspired by the Targaryens, the Vaccatir. Dragon-blooded but not full Dragonborn, they have hair and eyes that reflects a chromatic or metallic dragon. While the hair and eye color don't affect an individual's alignment per se, sometimes a Vaccatir goes bad, and when they do they have chromatic coloration more often than not. So, I'll be starting the players in this kingdom, getting missions from the Crown Prince Ahrkfin Vaccatir, gold hair and eyes, who's a friendly if a bit arrogant fellow. The PCs will also be approached by his kinda-sorta half-sister Sofyrie (I said they were based on Targaryens, the family tree is very complicated) who has red hair and eyes. She's working to undermine her brother, gather power, and set herself up to become the true queen behind Ahrkfin as her puppet king. She's also a Sorcerer and/or Warlock (haven't decided yet) and been raising a Red Dragon in secret. The players won't know any of this, and may suspect Ahrkfin of being less-than-noble while Sofyrie may be seen as the trustworthy one. All according to plan.
The climax of the story would see Sofyrie, in magical disguise, pointing the PCs at the Tomb of Horrors, hoping the Tomb will permanently deprive her brother of these very useful allies. While the PCs are away, she initiates her coup, intending to force Ahrkfin into marrying her, having special wedding rings made by Dark Elves that will let her control his mind, and basically turn the kingdom of Dovdonok from staunch allies of Good into a forward staging base for Evil. The PCs survive the Tomb (maybe), return to find Dovdonok in an uproar, rescue Ahrkfin from the dungeon, and confront Sofyrie. She calls her dragon who rips the roof off the throne room, maybe she takes some important character (player or non) hostage personally, and demands Ahrkfin surrender to her, or she will kill her hostage and order her dragon to burn Dovdonok to the ground. Mist begins to gather, spilling into the damaged throne room. Ahrkfin refuses, stating that it's better for his people to die honorably than live as slaves. Sofyrie orders her dragon to burn it all, and the Mists thicken to blinding, and when they vanish, Sofyrie and her dragon are gone.
In the Demiplane of Dread, the Mists part to reveal a new Domain, Dovdonok. Once proud stone structures are burned and crumbling husks, temporary repairs quickly undone as a Red Dragon soars through the skies hunting food and treasure. Nobles and courtiers attend Queen Sofyrie, who is staggeringly indifferent to all their pleas and arrangements and designs and schemes. She and her Dragon hoard whatever treasure can be found, looking out at their scorched landscape. The Queen has reigned for hundreds of years, taking no husband from the ordinary humans around her. Every so often, a rumor will surface of someone with blue, green, silver, or gold hair and eyes, and Sofyrie pursues these rumors with unrelenting zeal, but they always amount to nothing. Sofyrie refuses to lift a finger for anything other than the possibility of continuing a true Vaccatir dynasty. If she would share the treasure accumulated by her and her dragon to repair the kingdom, if she would forge her realm's armies into something to challenge the other Darklords, if she would recognize the worth and nobility of the "ordinary" people around her form a happy family that way, then she could escape the Land of Mists. But if she was capable of any of these things, she wouldn't be a Darklord.
So, the question is: does this seem like an appropriate Act of Ultimate Darkness (pulling "If I can't have you, no one can" on an entire kingdom) and ironic punishment to fit in Ravenloft? And yes, Dovdonok is a bit more "high fantasy" and a bit less "gothic horror" than Ravenloft usually is, but I'm not planning on running it as a Ravenloft Domain, just as a fitting end for a campaign villain.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Okay, some backstory. Skip ahead if you don't care.
This all started with reading Darths and Droids, and their references to Tomb of Horrors, and me wanting to run it for my players just so we can say we did. We've been gaming more or less since high school, over 20 years now, but D&D has never really been our game (two of my players have parents who, sadly, bought into the "D&D is Satanic!" hype). So, getting into 5th to do the Tomb, my players kind of want to run a starter adventure to get a handle on the rules and their characters (and so do I, before tossing them in the proverbial and literal deep end). Since we're essentially making a mini-campaign out of it, I've dusted off an old homebrew setting I made basically for funsies to run it, since I know that world and can at least craft an interesting story of these two, potentially more, adventures.
(Backstory more or less ends.)
The world is called Quatal, is centered around the idea of Good and Evil being in perpetual, never-ending war, and has its own pantheons and kingdoms and so on. One of those kingdoms, firmly on the side of Good, is Dovdonok, ruled over by a family inspired by the Targaryens, the Vaccatir. Dragon-blooded but not full Dragonborn, they have hair and eyes that reflects a chromatic or metallic dragon. While the hair and eye color don't affect an individual's alignment per se, sometimes a Vaccatir goes bad, and when they do they have chromatic coloration more often than not. So, I'll be starting the players in this kingdom, getting missions from the Crown Prince Ahrkfin Vaccatir, gold hair and eyes, who's a friendly if a bit arrogant fellow. The PCs will also be approached by his kinda-sorta half-sister Sofyrie (I said they were based on Targaryens, the family tree is very complicated) who has red hair and eyes. She's working to undermine her brother, gather power, and set herself up to become the true queen behind Ahrkfin as her puppet king. She's also a Sorcerer and/or Warlock (haven't decided yet) and been raising a Red Dragon in secret. The players won't know any of this, and may suspect Ahrkfin of being less-than-noble while Sofyrie may be seen as the trustworthy one. All according to plan.
The climax of the story would see Sofyrie, in magical disguise, pointing the PCs at the Tomb of Horrors, hoping the Tomb will permanently deprive her brother of these very useful allies. While the PCs are away, she initiates her coup, intending to force Ahrkfin into marrying her, having special wedding rings made by Dark Elves that will let her control his mind, and basically turn the kingdom of Dovdonok from staunch allies of Good into a forward staging base for Evil. The PCs survive the Tomb (maybe), return to find Dovdonok in an uproar, rescue Ahrkfin from the dungeon, and confront Sofyrie. She calls her dragon who rips the roof off the throne room, maybe she takes some important character (player or non) hostage personally, and demands Ahrkfin surrender to her, or she will kill her hostage and order her dragon to burn Dovdonok to the ground. Mist begins to gather, spilling into the damaged throne room. Ahrkfin refuses, stating that it's better for his people to die honorably than live as slaves. Sofyrie orders her dragon to burn it all, and the Mists thicken to blinding, and when they vanish, Sofyrie and her dragon are gone.
In the Demiplane of Dread, the Mists part to reveal a new Domain, Dovdonok. Once proud stone structures are burned and crumbling husks, temporary repairs quickly undone as a Red Dragon soars through the skies hunting food and treasure. Nobles and courtiers attend Queen Sofyrie, who is staggeringly indifferent to all their pleas and arrangements and designs and schemes. She and her Dragon hoard whatever treasure can be found, looking out at their scorched landscape. The Queen has reigned for hundreds of years, taking no husband from the ordinary humans around her. Every so often, a rumor will surface of someone with blue, green, silver, or gold hair and eyes, and Sofyrie pursues these rumors with unrelenting zeal, but they always amount to nothing. Sofyrie refuses to lift a finger for anything other than the possibility of continuing a true Vaccatir dynasty. If she would share the treasure accumulated by her and her dragon to repair the kingdom, if she would forge her realm's armies into something to challenge the other Darklords, if she would recognize the worth and nobility of the "ordinary" people around her form a happy family that way, then she could escape the Land of Mists. But if she was capable of any of these things, she wouldn't be a Darklord.
So, the question is: does this seem like an appropriate Act of Ultimate Darkness (pulling "If I can't have you, no one can" on an entire kingdom) and ironic punishment to fit in Ravenloft? And yes, Dovdonok is a bit more "high fantasy" and a bit less "gothic horror" than Ravenloft usually is, but I'm not planning on running it as a Ravenloft Domain, just as a fitting end for a campaign villain.