Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="bobhayes" data-source="post: 5450802" data-attributes="member: 97874">I like TikkchikFenTikktikk's suggestion.If you decide to decide yourself:The elves more or less lied to the party. What actually happened was, the humans had settled in the area first when the elves decided that they weren't going to let any upstart humans get a foothold in the elvish lands, and tried to force them out. Elvish arrogance led to a disastrous war. The humans had nearly won, when the elves in desperation called a peace conference to settle things diplomatically. But the humans didn't realize the duplicity of this particular elven group - it was all a lie, and when the humans laid down their arms to negotiate the elves made sneak attacks using powerful magics.The betrayed and beleaguered humans sought assistance from a powerful necromancer in the area. He hadn't been concerned with the war, other than being delighted to have so many corpses available, but struck a deal with the humans: he would aid them in their war, but they had to bind the souls of their people to him. In return, he would destroy the elves. Alas, this was yet another betrayal - when the compact was sealed in blood, the necromancer destroyed the humans himself and took their life force, creating an undead army of tremendous power. The now-desperate elves sought divine assistance, and their gods contained the undead force (and the necromancer) with a blood ritual of their own - so long as the elves abandoned the territory where the humans had been, the necromancer's magic will not function and the undead army (and he himself) are contained and unable to attack them.The elves guard this secret closely, because anyone seeking the destruction of the elves need only kidnap an elf or two and bring them to the forest - the longer the elves remain, the more the undead awaken and the greater the risk to the elvish people. The occasional lost elf that has triggered the effect in the past hasn't led to enormous disaster, because once the undead kill that particular elf, the binding magic reasserts itself. But someone who knows the whole story could destroy the elves utterly by keeping elves in the forest but protecting them from the undead.This is a bigger plot element than you would want to handle in a session or two - but they could perhaps find out the history of the curse by venturing into the necromancer's lair. Make raising the curse far beyond their power at the moment - they would have to destroy the necromancer himself, who is a powerful lich at this point - but at their present level they could gather information and maybe a little treasure and put this quest in their future "to do" bin.</blockquote>

Verification