FR - Murann and it's Ogre Mages [major updates, 8/25]

Well, I am going to be hopefully starting up a campaign soon with my group, adn I ahve an idea of what I want to do; it was one of the 'Plots and Rumors' from the FRCS that always caught my eye. This one was 'The Overlords of Murann'. Following is the text from the 'Important Sites', 'Plots and Rumors' and 'Regional History' sections of the FRCS that deal wih this.

Murann (Metropolis, 47,322): The secondary port town of Amn, Murann is now fully in the hands of two ogre mages and their minions. The city's alchemists guild remains intact, it members creating alchemical items and potions for the armies of the Sythillisian Empire. The humanoids armies seized the gold-laden ships and are not quite wealthy, and the Nelanther pirates and the Tashalar-based Rundeen use the place as a safe haven in exchange for defending it against navel attacks. The church of Selune crusades relentlessly to see the city reclaimed, since they have a large temple there.

The Overlords of Murann: The monster army in Murann is too powerful for a direct assault by anyhting but another army, but some factions beleive that key assassinations within the monsters organization (particularily the ogre mages themselves) would destabilize it enough to cause a collapse.

Regional History: In 1370 DR, two ogre mages named Sythillis (LE male ordge mage Sorcerer 12) and Cyrvisnea (LE female ogre mage Fighter 12) gathered an army of goblins, kobolds, ogres and hill giants (backed by worshippers of Cyric) to attack the southern cities of Amn, with the ultimate goal of aquiring Maztican gold from docked ships in Murann. They suceeded and have since held the southern portions of Amn despite various efforts by the Council adn adventuring groups to dislodge them. At nearly the same time, two sourthern Amnian cities (note: Riatavin according to FRCS, and I'm going with it's closest town on the map, Trailstone) defected to Tethyr, seeking better treatment and more freedom.


Okay, so that is the background of it all. The entire southern portion of Amn is ready for all hell to break loose, and I want my players to be right in the middle of it - but I'd like some desperately needed help with some details for this campaign.

(1) okay, first off: Ogre Mages are CR 8 according to the MM, but I want to use Mearls' new Ogre Mages, BUT I'm not sure what level to start off play at. I'm thinking mid levels, at least, becasue I want them to be able to deal with stuff such as classed ogres and hill giants (fighter and barbarian, of course), along with some of their more powerful allies alongside them (some mid-to-high-level clerics of Cyric, nasty beasties in their possesion, etc). I want them to be a high level threat, and I want this campaign to go into those levels. So, any ideas?

(2) ... which leads into my next quandry: What class should the arcane ogre mags be? I don't want a vanilla sorcerer or wizard - I want something new. I was considring trying out a Warlock, with the fighter-type being a Hexblade, which could mean they have some fiendish ties, which would be cool to tie in (maybe use the CR 5 Ogre Mages with the half-fiend template?).

(3) what kinds of beasts can I use as war beasts and such for this army? I want a big quaderped thumper who deals some massive damage and you don't wna to mess with - any suggestions?

I think those are all the idea I have for now, and I'd appreciate any feedback to this idea guys and girls. Thanks for listening to the rant

(1) On the giants: Revised Giants


(2) Hum... thinking PHII: Duskblade Fiendish Ogre Mage?


(3) War beasts, well,

Elephants+Giants is a classic... but...

Gigantic Serpents!...

Purple Worms! er... maybe reduce their size by one category and nerf the poison, that should bring them to CR 8 aprox...

Drakes! (Normal Dragon, just remove the wings and modify the description at pleasue)

Land Outcast said:

(1) On the giants: Revised Giants

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Cool stuff there, I beleived I'e been through that site a bit before -thanks for the link!

Land Outcast said:

(2) Hum... thinking PHII: Duskblade Fiendish Ogre Mage?

Click to expand...

Duskblade is too gish for this - I would like one OM to be definitly a magic-user, and the other to be a warrior.

Land Outcast said:

(3) War beasts, well,

Elephants+Giants is a classic... but...

Gigantic Serpents!...

Purple Worms! er... maybe reduce their size by one category and nerf the poison, that should bring them to CR 8 aprox...

Drakes! (Normal Dragon, just remove the wings and modify the description at pleasue)

Click to expand...

Hmmm, Well elephants would be okay, except would they fit in amn? I dunno, this has to be somehting fairly common, since the PCs will see (if not battle) enough of these in the warcamps of Murann, etc. Ill have to think on this one.

Thanks for the quick reply - any other advice is gratfully received

YOu might want to check out Power of Faerun. Some of that stuff is detailed in there (I think).

except would they fit in amn?

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well.. nay... they fit in the frozen north and maybe in chult...

So I say: Keep the giant serpents

Landwyrms (from Draconomicon) could make good war hulks...

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More of a spellcasting Ogre Mage?
[sblock= Complicated me]
Disclaimer: Complicated me, not what you are searching for... just realized; altough, it could be modified to have more spell levels per day than here, say, duplicate the number and then you have what you are searching for ("primary" spellcaster)... also increase the modification to CR by +1.

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You could do what I did when converting the Ogre Mage into an ogre with the "Eldrich" template:

At will: Spell levels equal to his Cha. Max spell level = (CR-4)/2

Example.1: CR 6, 16 Cha. with this template gets 3 spell levels, of which none can be higher than level 1.
Which is to say, gets three spells lvl 1 at will.
Example.2: CR 10, 20 Cha. with this template gets 5 spell levels, of which none can be higher than level 3.
Five spells level 1; or two level 1 and one level three; or two level 2 and one level 1; etc...


1/day: Spell levels equal to his Cha*CR. Max spell level = (CR+2)/2

Example.1: CR 6, 16 Cha. with this template gets 9 spell levels, of which none can be higher than level 4.
Example.2: CR 10, 20 Cha. with this template gets 50 spell levels, of which none can be higher than level 6.

note.1: Has to have more or equal spells of the previous spell level (except when choosing level 1 spells). Example: -/5/3/3/3/2 -> 40 spell levels, CR 8 Cha 20
note.2: Spending 4 spell levels on a lvl 2 spell awards two daily uses of it.

For the complete template (based off the Ogre Mage) see the attachment.

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The ogre mage, created through appliance of this template
To create an "advanced" Ogre Mage through this system I apply Warrior levels to a normal Ogre and them apply the template. Example: CR 3(Ogre) + CR 2(War 4) + CR 3(Eldritch)...

That'd actually leave us with a "Normal" Ogre Mage
+3d8 HD
casting 8*3, 24 spell levels per day.
maximum spell level = 10/2, 5.
Example "best" spells per day: -/2/2/2/1/1
Example "best" spells at will: -/1/1

If desired: ask for clarifications[/sblock]

Other, simplet option, would be to give them casting as Sorcerer level 4...

There are a few essential pages in Powers of Faerun for you. It both updates the story and stats one of the ogre mages.

Snotlord said:

There are a few essential pages in Powers of Faerun for you. It both updates the story and stats one of the ogre mages.

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dang, one of the books I don't ave of FR. Alas, looks like a purchase might be in the worlks for me...

I figured that they'd update this sooner or later, it seems like a great adventure.

Anyone have a sum-up of the events that have transpired?

Nyaricus said:

Anyone have a sum-up of the events that have transpired?

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The conflict remain unresolved for 3-4 years. The Council of Amn seem content with cutting their losses, while the ogre mages are digging in. The timeline begins at Ches 15 and ends Eleint 5, Year of Lightning Storms, and ends with a truce (and a different war brewing ).

Snotlord said:

The conflict remain unresolved for 3-4 years. The Council of Amn seem content with cutting their losses, while the ogre mages are digging in. The timeline begins at Ches 15 and ends Eleint 5, Year of Lightning Storms, and ends with a truce (and a different war brewing ).

Click to expand...

So, it's an unsteady truce in Amns (ex-)secondary port city - the Sythillinsian Empire has been officially founded. Intersting, and works for my purposes.

I was thinking: Maybe have the arcanist, Syth, be a Warlock and the tank, Cyr, be a Knight (*devilsmiley*). That would be an interesting combo and allow me to try out two classes I have desperately been wanting to On top of that, they will both have some sort of fiendish template to add to their reps, and with that comes the cincher: they are being backed by a demon lord in the service of Cyric himself, who (Cyric) has been ensuring his followers are helping out with this fldging empire (and would thus oppose the PCs, with a BBEGMinion being a high priest of Cyric ).

So, what's this 'different war' that's brewing?

Its a follow-up to the Stingers in Monsters of Faerûn, "The Stinger War", and is vague at best.

Also, you may want to check out some radical alliances in the conflict write-up. The finer points was lost to me, but it involved an alliance between some cyricists, clerics of Loviatar and Selunites. I hope to use this plot in my own campaign, but haven't quite gotten around to it yet.