A wraith on the loose

[Yokiboy]

Hi buddies,

I have a wraith on the loose in my campaign. The party's paladin executed one of the Death God's clerics publically in the village square of a small town they passed through. The cleric came back as a wraith to exact revenge and terrorized the PC party. He haunted them throughout an entire night at a local tavern, and due to the party's slow reactions killed all the other guests and personnel staying at the tavern. The party skipped town at sun-up and left for a larger city half a day's travel away, where they had business to attend, leaving the wraith behind. Now though, 2 days later the party is on the way back to the village, and this is where I'd like your help.

What do you think the wraith would do in their absence? Would he slaughter all the defenseless villagers, in order to grow stronger (remember the 5hp gained each time he drains someone's CON)? Would he perhaps track the party, as he's bent on revenge? Since the wraith only operates during the cover of night, he would always be a day behind the party, but on the other hand he travels fast, and exhaustion free.

Please help me out with some wicked and gruesome ideas? I'm having so much fun with this wraith, he's been draining CON from the PCs and then slipping away before they have time to regroup.

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Micar Sin]

Well, I would say he would try and track the party down, since he came back for revenge. Since there is a paladin in the party and they skipped town, leaving an incredibly dangerous foe behind, I would have the paladin loose his status, first off. Secondly, have the wraith spend 1 night draining every person in town and raising them as slave-wraiths before chasing the group. This gives the party a very nasty surprise combat wise, and you can do things like having child-wraiths whisper to the paladin 'why did you leave us?' and similar things. Especially if the church in the larger city has not been warned, a hoard of wraiths could quickly overrun the larger city and turn it into a city of the dead with the wraith-cleric as their king... hmm...

 

[arwink]

With a village full of helpless commoners, your wraith has no need to go chasing after the PC's - firstly, because he has a villagefull of snack-food he can eat and grow more powerful, and secondly because he has an entire village full of snack-food that he can turn into wraiths and use as his minions. Thirdly, because if he does this for long enough the group will eventually hear about it and come after him - and then the fight will be on his terms.

When they next visit the village, have the wraith lie low. No actual attacks (or low key attacks by a few minor wraiths), but hearing rumors of people falling ill (con drained) or wasting away during the night (killed). Let the PC's hunt around for a bit, find a small horde of wraiths hiding out somewhere, but have the main bad guy actively avoid confrontation. Let them get the feeling that the problem might be solved, and wander off into the sunset.

After which, a small platoon of wraiths that used to be the town guard will come after them. Or smaller groups of wraiths will be sent to nearby villages in all directions to replicate the process as quickly as they can, giving the illusion that the primary wraith behind it all is travelling accross country as fast as possible raising undead hordes

If you can handle the Lord of the Rings references, you could potentially string this out for a really, really long time.

 

[Yokiboy]

I love both of your ideas, even if both would probably lead to TPK at this time.

Do you think the wraith would act any differently if he was down to just 2hp at the time the party was saved by the sunrise? The wraith also came into existance to get revenge on the paladin who had him publically executed, would this affect the wraith to the point of stupid mistakes, such as blindly focusing on vengeance rather than plotting and planning?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Here is a thought, how much exp has the wraith gained.

Is it possible that as an evil cleric that class is still available to him? Now what about all those dead, does he have the power to raise a zombie horde?

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I think that it's very reasonable to suppose that the wraith would follow the Paladin to the exclusion of all else - after all, he exists due to a compulsion to wreak revenge, therefore the urge for revenge should outweigh almost all other considerations.

If you want him to get a few mini-wraiths, he could come across a camp of merchants or something while following the paladin and other PC's, therefore getting a few helpers without wasting too much time.

I would treat him much like a Revenant, he will track the Paladin unendingly, killnig anything that gets in his way - but not going out of his way under any circumstances.

 

[Kyramus]

A Death God's Cleric returned as a Wraith.

Agenda:
Revenge on the Paladin

How to impliment:
1) The obvious death to paladin
2) Revenge in the form of the Paladin also getting executed publicly
3) make the paladin loose faith
4) turn the paladin to the worship of his god. (side note: paladin serves new god, dies, and returns as an undead , part of cleric's revenge)
5) Masquerade as the paladin and ravage the country side at night.

as for the village situation. I'd say not to take the paladin's powers. HOWEVER take one of the powers. DM choice. I'd probably pick disease immunity. and before they arrive at the village, have the paladin cure someone with some sort of flu. Before they arrive, paladin gets a fever and aches.

Villiagers would be sickly but not dead. They'd blame the paladin and group for bringing down a curse on their village. Prisoners would probably be killed and turned into wightlings. added thing of the group feeling that they left behind something unfinished. have one of the wightlings boosted with cleric spells to make him look like the leader.

Once the party is done with the group, wraith starts to follow the group and begins to impliment the tactics above. he might also send word for another cleric tot ake his place in the village with a note that the villagers are in a weakened state and it's now ready for the change. change being turning everyone into skeletons or zombies with a minor illusion/preservation spell to keep them looking normal. Village becomes a new outpost for the death clerics.

If the Paladin has family, the wraith might go after them first. Maybe nudge a brother or sister into the service of the Death God. And go through a few trials to gain their powers, finally a good test for the sibling is to prove their loyalty to their new deity. They have to face and sacrifice a paladin of an opposing order (insert player's paladin order here). Then let the fireworks happen as the Paladin might not try to kill his brother/sister while the brother/sister is playing for keeps.

hehe
ok i'm turning a little too sadistic. Have fun with the ideas.

 

[Yokiboy]

Here is a thought, how much exp has the wraith gained.

Is it possible that as an evil cleric that class is still available to him? Now what about all those dead, does he have the power to raise a zombie horde?

Would he have to worry about raising the dead as zombies, when they are already Wraith Spawn?

Btw, is there a limit to the number of wraiths a wraith can spawn, and can the wraith spawn spawn more wraiths? (No, that's not a tongue twister, but a real question. )

 

[Yokiboy]

I think that it's very reasonable to suppose that the wraith would follow the Paladin to the exclusion of all else - after all, he exists due to a compulsion to wreak revenge, therefore the urge for revenge should outweigh almost all other considerations.

If you want him to get a few mini-wraiths, he could come across a camp of merchants or something while following the paladin and other PC's, therefore getting a few helpers without wasting too much time.

I would treat him much like a Revenant, he will track the Paladin unendingly, killnig anything that gets in his way - but not going out of his way under any circumstances.

Ok, the wraith already has spawned three additional wraiths due to killing the staff in the tavern, just to stay alive after being zapped by quite a few Magic Missiles. The temporary HP, which are stated as lasting only 1 hour, at the end of that time are they removed and would that in fact kill the wraith then, if he's lost the few remaining "real" HP he posessed? How would a wraith recover HP?

What is a Revenant?

Would the wraith not try to kill as many commoners as possible, in order to raise an army of wraith spawn? Is there a limit to the number of spawns he can control?

TTFN,

Yokiboy

 

[Yokiboy]

5) Masquerade as the paladin and ravage the country side at night.

How would he accomplish this, without the use of magic at least, as he's incorporeal?

as for the village situation. I'd say not to take the paladin's powers. HOWEVER take one of the powers. DM choice. I'd probably pick disease immunity. and before they arrive at the village, have the paladin cure someone with some sort of flu. Before they arrive, paladin gets a fever and aches.

That's an idea I really like, and I might do something of the sort.

Villiagers would be sickly but not dead. They'd blame the paladin and group for bringing down a curse on their village. Prisoners would probably be killed and turned into wightlings. added thing of the group feeling that they left behind something unfinished. have one of the wightlings boosted with cleric spells to make him look like the leader.

True, the wraith doesn't have to kill all the villagers, merely drain their CON, although the benefit of that is only 5 temporary HP for 1 hour. Turning them into Wraith Spawn is a much better idea, and Commoners are easy to kill, even when you only do 1d4 damage.

What are wightlings btw? I wasn't aware of a lesser form of wights.

Once the party is done with the group, wraith starts to follow the group and begins to impliment the tactics above. he might also send word for another cleric tot ake his place in the village with a note that the villagers are in a weakened state and it's now ready for the change. change being turning everyone into skeletons or zombies with a minor illusion/preservation spell to keep them looking normal. Village becomes a new outpost for the death clerics.

Okay this is just SWEET! Consider the village taken over already.

If the Paladin has family, the wraith might go after them first. Maybe nudge a brother or sister into the service of the Death God. And go through a few trials to gain their powers, finally a good test for the sibling is to prove their loyalty to their new deity. They have to face and sacrifice a paladin of an opposing order (insert player's paladin order here). Then let the fireworks happen as the Paladin might not try to kill his brother/sister while the brother/sister is playing for keeps.

The paladin has a missing older brother, that disappeared when he was just a young child. I could definitely set up a great big battle, only to have the paladin realize that he's fighting his own brother. Gotta love it!

TTFN,

Yokiboy