Short version: Why might a Necromancer have chosen to take over a forest? What artifact/treasure/power might be there?
Secondary question: necromancer wizard or death cleric?
Longer version/More context
One of the PCs in my campaign has as part of her back story that she was "raised" by wolves in a forest (actually taken in when she was older, but adopted by them). Their forest was overrun by undead: the pack fled, but she remained to try to fight off the undead hordes, but she wasn't strong enough. She fled, too, having lost contact with her pack. She is about to reconnect with her pack, and I presume she will soon want to return to the forest to fight off the undead. I have decided that the undead are in the service of a necromancer (or death cleric?) but I'm struggling with what their interest in the forest might be: I have a vague sense that they are seeking some source of power, but I'm not sure what it might be. Any suggestions?
At this point I am anticipating that the party will be level 5 when they attempt to deal with the forest.
A) Forests are places teeming with nature, life, and death. There will be a near infinite amount of corpses and creatures for a necromancer to work with.
B) Terrain changes. The forest might not have always been a forest. The trees may be concealing the site of an ancient civilization, or perhaps hiding the corpse of an ancient dragon or Titan.
Forests represent the "wilderness", there is little that they can not offer for discovery.
Plot twist! The Necromancer's trying to scare away most creatures of the forest as he/she's inadvertently activated an ancient artefact of DOOM while exploring an ancient tomb/tower/temple in the heart of the forest and now tries to stop it. But the artefact feeds on the life force of the woods (and there's lots of it) and resurrects everything that dies as zombies/skeletons. The necromancer can't control them, but tries to raise undead of his/her own to try and stall the artefact created horde and at the same time, to scare away creatures so that they don't end up killed and zombified to strengthen the artefact.
Will the adventurers view the necromancer as the evil overlord that has to be stopped and, after defeating him/her, realising their mistake and now has to try and stop the artefact on their own. Without the necromancers expertise. And IF they see the necromancer as a potential ally and together try to stop the artefact, what's stopping you from playing the traitor card and having the necromancer escape with the secrets of the artefact to set up his/her own realm of darkness and undeath?
I'm with the "maybe the necromancer just needed a base camp and this forest was secluded enough for them and their minions to lay low while working on their Great Evil Plan" camp. If you want it to be something bigger or grander, you could say the forest is the site of an ancient battle, and the necromancer is searching for the lost superweapon that ended it by destroying both sides utterly-- the weapon is rumored, according to their sources, to lie buried far below the the forest door in a hidden dungeon.
Short version: Why might a Necromancer have chosen to take over a forest? What artifact/treasure/power might be there?
Secondary question: necromancer wizard or death cleric?
Longer version/More context
One of the PCs in my campaign has as part of her back story that she was "raised" by wolves in a forest (actually taken in when she was older, but adopted by them). Their forest was overrun by undead: the pack fled, but she remained to try to fight off the undead hordes, but she wasn't strong enough. She fled, too, having lost contact with her pack. She is about to reconnect with her pack, and I presume she will soon want to return to the forest to fight off the undead. I have decided that the undead are in the service of a necromancer (or death cleric?) but I'm struggling with what their interest in the forest might be: I have a vague sense that they are seeking some source of power, but I'm not sure what it might be. Any suggestions?
At this point I am anticipating that the party will be level 5 when they attempt to deal with the forest.
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A) Forests are places teeming with nature, life, and death. There will be a near infinite amount of corpses and creatures for a necromancer to work with.
B) Terrain changes. The forest might not have always been a forest. The trees may be concealing the site of an ancient civilization, or perhaps hiding the corpse of an ancient dragon or Titan.
Forests represent the "wilderness", there is little that they can not offer for discovery.
Plot twist!
The Necromancer's trying to scare away most creatures of the forest as he/she's inadvertently activated an ancient artefact of DOOM while exploring an ancient tomb/tower/temple in the heart of the forest and now tries to stop it. But the artefact feeds on the life force of the woods (and there's lots of it) and resurrects everything that dies as zombies/skeletons. The necromancer can't control them, but tries to raise undead of his/her own to try and stall the artefact created horde and at the same time, to scare away creatures so that they don't end up killed and zombified to strengthen the artefact.
Will the adventurers view the necromancer as the evil overlord that has to be stopped and, after defeating him/her, realising their mistake and now has to try and stop the artefact on their own. Without the necromancers expertise. And IF they see the necromancer as a potential ally and together try to stop the artefact, what's stopping you from playing the traitor card and having the necromancer escape with the secrets of the artefact to set up his/her own realm of darkness and undeath?
I'm with the "maybe the necromancer just needed a base camp and this forest was secluded enough for them and their minions to lay low while working on their Great Evil Plan" camp. If you want it to be something bigger or grander, you could say the forest is the site of an ancient battle, and the necromancer is searching for the lost superweapon that ended it by destroying both sides utterly-- the weapon is rumored, according to their sources, to lie buried far below the the forest door in a hidden dungeon.
Watch the Last Witch Hunter.