The Brutal Inquisitor (campaign brainstorming help needed)

[KidSnide]

Rather than wasting the emperor's troops to pacify the gnoll tribes, Zacris simply created a massive rectangular stone wall around the tribelands. The Cackling River that formerly provided water to the gnolls instead flowed around the walls, leaving the meager plants of the tribelands to wither and the gnolls to starve. Bereft of food (or human lands to raid) the gnolls had resorted to cannibalism. Gnolls hunted other gnolls for meat. Mothers fed their weakest pups to the others so some from the litter would survive.

That was only the beginning of the horror. The gnolls who died, eaten by their own family, arose as ghouls. The nightmare continued. Ghouls hunted the few living gnolls and, when they were felled, the ghouls hunted other ghouls. Stripped of any flesh, white skeletal ghouls devoured each other, their strong hyena jaws cracking bones to suck out bits of decaying marrow.

In the end, all that remained were skulls.

When Zacris returned a few decades later, he surveyed the wasteland and considered the task neatly accomplished. The skulls were gathered and tossed into a pit. Zacris dispelled the wall to restore access to the tribelands, even though the river had long since carved a path around them. To this day, the strange rectangular course of the Cackling River remains the only memorial to the gnoll tribes and the terrible vengeance wrought upon them. (That, and a buried mountain of ravenous undead gnoll skulls.)

-KS

 

[Wik]

Let's use some real Roman history here:

1) Ever hear of "Decimation"? Basically, the word comes from an old Roman military action - when a legion broke discipline in a particularly harsh way, such as by fleeing, mutineering, or breaking lines, they would be dishonoured. The officers would often be hung, while the remaining soldiers (those who were not the instigators of the act), would draw stones from a bag. One stone out of ten would have a black mark on it. If your stone had a black mark on it, you were put to death. The other nine either remained in the legion, or were sent to other legions with their honor more or less kept intact.

Now, imagine if Zacris, a well-known military leader, became the new leader of a bunch of sad sack soldiers. Imagine if the first thing he did was decimate his unit to put them back in line... and then he rewrote Caprian law so that rather then those corpses being buried, they were instead "put to service as slaves" in an undead state - a state worse than death! That's the stuff legends are made of - even better if the undead slaves were vital in future victories.

2) Zacris could get involved in one of the numerous plots to oust the emperor that always seem to pop up. Of course, he'd gather together all of the offenders, and then backstab them all at once in the name of the emperor, and spend the better part of a week torturing them on a hill that overlooks the city so that future conspirators would think twice before betraying the emperor.

3) How did Zacris get his initial wealth? He used his armies as fire brigades in the city. What did he do? He'd wait until there was a fire, send his fire brigade, and they wouldn't put out the fire until the owner sold the house to the brigade at a very low price (and if the owner didn't, remember he'd be legally liable for any damages should the fire spread). Then Zacris would sell the property back to the owner, at the street value - unless the property was quite profitable, in which case, he'd keep it. (This is how the roman senator crassus made a lot of cash).

4) I think Zacris needs to be responsible for developing some of the more deadly spells in your campaign. I don't know what game you're playing, but imagine if the spell, say, Slay Living was developed originally by Zacris?

 

[Daern]

• There used to be a street named after Emperor Zacris, but it was changed because nobody crosses Emperor Zacris and lives.
• Emperor Zacris has already been to the Void; that's why there are no signs of life.
• Emperor Zacris died 1000 years ago, the Raven Queen just hasn't built up the courage to tell him yet.
• Some magicans can walk on water, Emperor Zacris can swim through land.
• Emperor Zacris and Orcus once fought each other on a bet. The loser had to start wearing his underwear on the outside of his pants.
• Emperor Zacris counted to infinity - twice.
• Emperor Zacris built the temple he was born in.
• Torog once had a near-Zacris experience
• Emperor Zacris can divide by zero
• When the Vecna goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Emperor Zacris.
• Emperor Zacris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him.
• Emperor Zacris once cast Bigby's Grasping hand on a horse. Its decendants are known today as Giraffes.
• There was no Dawn War. Just a list of gods Emperor Zacris allows to live.
• Emperor Zacris never needs a light spell, he just stares into the darkness and it moves out of the way.
• When Emperor Zacris looks at himself at a mirror, there is no reflection. There can only be one Emperor Zacris.
• Emperor Zacris is the only man to punch a cyclops between the eyes
• Emperor Zacris is the only person who can melt the back of the face
• Emperor Zacris doesn't breathe, he holds air hostage.
• Contrary to popular belief, Emperor Zacris cannot fly. He just jumps and chooses when to come down.
• When Emperor Zacris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.
• Emperor Zacris doesn't read books. He stares them down until they tell him the information he wants.
• Emperor Zacris can stand at the bottom of a bottomless pit.
• Emperor Zacris can drown a fish
• Emperor Zacris can light a fire by rubbing two ice-cubes together.
• Emperor Zacris can kill two stones with one bird

 

[coyote6]

- it was Zacris who led the inquisition into the Great Northern Forest, where he came to an agreement with the King of the Elves that gave elves relative freedom.

Combine this with Wednesday Boy's suggestion: the means by which the elves secured this treaty is by betraying their eladrin cousins, and giving Zacris the means to summon and bind the feyspires. The elves gave up the knowledge, and handed over sacrifices to power the ritual (they gave up criminal elves, naturally) that would co-locate the spires.

This assault on the Feywild was part of a campaign to conquer or suppress the eladrins, after a band of eladrin thieves dared to intrude on one of the Emperor's private gardens/museums/harems. The Emperor demanded that the entire eladrin race be punished for this crime; when informed that most of the eladrins lived in a parallel plane of existence, he was furious. That meant they held lands that were somehow in the same place as His Empire, and yet they did not bow to him?!? Unacceptable!

Thus, the great fey crusade was born. However, sending an army to the Feywild proved difficult, so Zacris devised the scheme to both bring the eladrin to the empire, and wedge open passages that the legions could pass through.

Eventually, of course, a portion of the eladrin people agreed to enter the service of the Empire, forming units of teleporting skirmishers to aid the legions in battle and (especially) sieges. In return, the Feywild was allowed to continue its existence. This is why there are eladrin in the regular world now.

Of course, before that treaty was reached and tribute agreed to, the war had killed tens/hundreds of thousands/millions, all to avenge a relatively minor theft/intrusion.

 

[Wik]

Oo! Oo! Because Zacris was the target of so many assassinations, he had numerous clones of himself forged (pretty easy to do). So there were a few "Zacris'" our there, many of whom were trained to basically emulate their originator and carry out his functions in the empire.

This way, the PC can always doubt - Am I Zacris? Or just a clone?

 

[Hautamaki]

Best thing you could do, imo, is work with the player's/character's already existing personality. For example if the player/character seems pre-disposed to disliking some race or other, that could be the race that he tried to commit genocide on before. Just generally doing your best to personalize it would help the player role-play and more importantly help the player to feel some connection to events that he never actually experienced.

 

[Hautamaki]

Oo! Oo! Because Zacris was the target of so many assassinations, he had numerous clones of himself forged (pretty easy to do). So there were a few "Zacris'" our there, many of whom were trained to basically emulate their originator and carry out his functions in the empire.

This way, the PC can always doubt - Am I Zacris? Or just a clone?

Nice. Fantastic villain opportunities there.

 

[Piratecat]

Oh, SO many good idea. I'm going to write them on little cards and pass out stories to the player periodically during the game, maybe 1-2 a night. Can't you just see the bards singing the ballad of Poro and Dazeen?

I now know why no one ever sees gnolls any more.

Interestingly enough, I have an unnamed shadowy threat currently plaguing and slowly destroying the Feywild. I wonder if that's the Lost Legions of Capria, which Zacris infused with shadow stuff and sent out to conquer?

 

[Cerebral Paladin]

When I think of epic wizard Inquisitor nastiness, my mind turns to necromancy. And so...

"It is said that in those days the Inquisitor Zacris was traveling in the company of Prince Aedric and Princess Solona when the Entathan countryside revolted. The Inquisitor and the Imperial Royalty led a Legion to crush the revolt and quickly broke the peasant mob, leaving the leaders of the revolt dead upon the field and the rabble in chains. The Legion's commander asked what should be done with the prisoners. Prince Aedric, always forgiving, said 'Let their right hands be struck off, that no more may they raise weapons against the Empire.' Princess Solona, though not yet as brutal as she would later be remembered for, said 'The penalty for treason is death. Let them all be slain.'

Inquisitor Zacris obeyed the suggestions of both Imperials. And thus did it come to pass that Inquisitor Zacris ordered the Legion to strike off the right hand of each rebel. When each rebel was chained with his own severed hand before him, the Inquisitor cast a great ritual. For 3 days and 3 nights the Inquisitor chanted without cease or pause. And then every severed hand returned to a semblance of life. And over the next month, the hands tortured their former owners, until finally the field contained nothing but horribly twisted corpses. Then Zacris spoke: 'It is mete and proper that the rebels die by their own hands, for they brought their fate upon themselves through their disloyalty. As they raised their hands against the Empress, so did they perish.'

The twisted and magical hands that still creep about the roads, fields, and villages of Entath stand as mute testimony to the consequences of rebellion. Long Live the Emperor!"

 

[carborundum]

Best thing you could do, imo, is work with the player's/character's already existing personality. For example if the player/character seems pre-disposed to disliking some race or other, that could be the race that he tried to commit genocide on before.

Oh, that ... is... good! He'll wonder if you read his mind