Alternative ideas of the Lands of Death - Haraiva players stay out

[Greybar]

Haraiva Players Stay Out


Hello all,

I've jotted some ideas about death and the land of the dead from my campaign world here.

In short, the idea is that the dead souls dwell in a land of the dead. The upshot of this is that spells like Raise Dead are actually commissioning agents to retrieve that soul. PCs can also do this themselves by travelling to the Grey Lands and finding the soul themselves. I'm guessing this will not be too unbalancing since the lowest planar travel spell is Plane Shift - the same level as Raise Dead.

The trade-offs are:
* Pro: Don't have to burn expensive diamonds.
* Con: Have to travel to a very dangerous place.

I'd love feedback on this idea.

thanks,
john

 

[Tonguez]

This is exactly how I work Raise Dead IMC.

Raise Dead opens a gate into the realm of the Dead which the PC must then enter, get past its various defenses/guards, locate the soul they desire and return to the material plane with that soul intact - and all within 3 days of death.

Shadows (and their evolved forms - Shadowwings, Nightmares) are natural inhabitants of this realm (ie not true undead but negative energy creatures) and any soul which is lost rather than going on to its reward) is absorbed into the Shadow becomes an undead Spirit (Ghost/Spectre etc).

Ressuection allows a Ghost/Specter to be returned to a physical body (usually unwillingly) but only AFTER it has been recovered by a PC going in using Raise Dead.

 

[Greybar]

Cool stuff Tonguez.

I'm working around a couple constrains, since the party has used Raise Dead twice already. Both times the spell was cast the day after the death. They've also seen a portal that was temporarily created into the Grey Lands by a NPC in an icky way, though they don't know why she made it.

I figure the more powerful souls start to draw more attention, too...

john