An undead invasion topples civilization, then what?

[Mr. Draco]

So I'm starting a new campaign, with a party of 9th level characters.
It's a homebrew world, and on the major continent a great empire has ruled for thousands of years, united ages ago by Lord Martill Havendash at the battle of the Bloody River. But, Lord Havendash made a deal with Death. Lord Havendash was granted immortality for ten-thousand years. At the end, he would have to give up his soul.

Ten-thousand years passed.

Death, in the guise of an old soothsayer, came to the empire's capital of Ironwall. There, he gained the King's confidence and on the eve of the ten-thousand years, Death interrupted a ritual ceremony the Emperor was performing, and demanded that Havendash give up his life. Havendash refused, and completed the ceremony, turning himself into a lich and believing he had cheated death.

Not to let such a transgression pass idly, Death raised the great armies that fell ten thousand years earlier at the battleground of the Bloody River (which the city was built upon), and the skeletal warriors destroyed the city, and moved onward. Where the undead plague swept, the dead were raised, and magic was extinguished (again, Death's doing, mostly in reaction to Havendash's lichdom). Havendash himself remained a lich, but Death placed a terrible curse on him. For eternity, Havendash would be forced to wander the continent, repenting for every sin committed under his rule, by anyone.

Now for where the players come in.

The PCs were at Ironwall on the eve of the ten-thousandth anneversary of the empire's foundation. When the skeletal armies rose, they, along with many others died in the defense of the city (allowing some innocents to escape).

Then, after their death, their souls watched the world for a thousand years (IMC the souls of heroes are set in the sky as stars after their deaths), as the undead ravaged the continent, and magic was extinguished.

During the thousand years they watched, resistance movements set up in the most hallowed of places. Perhaps one one-hundredth of one percent of the original population survived in these small bands, fighting for the right to live.

One of these bands discovered a prophecy, and the band's elder, along with a small war-party, set out to see it through. The prophecy was for the return of magic, and heroes, to the world. After the warband sneaks into Ironwall, at the remains of the castle there, a ritual is performed with the rising of the blue moon. The PCs (now treated as true heroes after the tales of the escapees of Ironwall's destruction became legend) are ressurected, and their return breaks Death's barrier that extinguished magic. Magic returns to the land, and the PCs have to escape the city after being brought back to life.

...and that's the end of my planning.

I have no idea where I'm going to go with this next, so any comments/criticism/ideas would be very much appreciated!

The theme of the campaign is bringing back civilization from the brink of absolute destruction.

 

[Patman21967]

Sounds like a blast...I wanna play....A Cleric/Undead Hunter....Extra Turning, Sacred Vengeance....cool idea...could go a million places with it....There is an old module, which I have 2 copies of, called LichLords....that couls be a cool culmination

 

[conanb]

Death's Vengence

Death I think would be angry with them, while Havendash would be supportive. Death's left over soldiers would try to fight them, but death could also unless his most fearsome killers to bring them down. Perhaps Death still walks the world in mortal guise. As such, so long as he walks the earth then his curse and the armies of dead cannot fully be destroyed. So the players are forced to try and avoid the specialized killers or face them in certain circumstances (See these as mini-bbeg battles) until they are able to track down and defeat Death.

 

[jerichothebard]

It almost sounds like you could use the Midnight setting as a resource - just make them ghouls instead of orcs...


There is a lot of material written already for that setting - with the assumption that the heroes are outgunned, outnumbered, and outlawed. Especially magic, which fits in with the removal of magic from the world and its subsequent return against Death's will...

sounds great - good luck!

 

[Torm]

Maybe a long, complicated ritual is being performed to blot out the sun, so that undead of all types can rule the world uninhibited? And maybe one world plot is the fight to stop the undead from getting everything they need to achieve this?

(I know - shades of Angel. But its a good plot, anyway. Sometimes the cliches and standards are that for a reason....)

 

[Fieari]

Woah. Sounds awesomly cool. If I hadn't just been spending a few weeks designing my own campaign/setting, I'd nick it. Heck, if I'd read this just a week earlier, I'd've incorperated it somehow. Don't think there's a chance for it anymore though.

Wish I was one of your players though. This sounds NICE.

In what manner must Havendash "repent" for every sin committed? I'm thinking that these actions could make for some good stories that your PCs could get involved in, if done right.

 

[darklight]

Very cool (and wicked) idea

A few thoughts...

If magic has been gone for a thousand years, it's a fairly safe bet that noone knows how to use it, except the pc's. One of their goals could be to spread the word so people will stand a better chance in the fight against the undead.

It would seem that the two most powerful entities in the world be Death and Havendash. It would be logical for the pc's to try to enlist the help of Havendash, perhaps, with their magic, they can somehow break his curse. This also presents a dilemma: to fight Death, are they prepared to 'unleash' Havendash, a man so powerhungry that he would make a deal with death and eventually turn himself into a lich to stay in power? If they make him help fight Death, they might have to fight him afterwards...

How exactly do you fight Death? Will they have to make a new deal with him? (Crazy idea ahead->) What if they somehow made (or threatened to make) the remaining living people liches (or something similar) that way Death could claim no more lives, how would he feel about that? Perhaps all Death really wants is for Havendash to truly die? Afterall it was Havendash's refusal to let Death take him that started it all...

Hmm...it's getting late (2am) and I have to work tomorrow, so I'll go to bed...but I'll try to come up with more later, I really like this idea...

edit: added one more...
I just envisioned a campaign end scene with Havendash's ritual 'death' finally ending the plague of undead... It would probably have to be voluntary, so the pc's will have to persuade Havendash to willingly embrace true death...
darklight

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Death, it seems in the beginning of the narrative, is a much more ambiguous figure than the latter part of the story seems to grant credence to. The death that cursed the king to wander (shades of the medieval legend of the wandering Jew?) and that raised up the same armies that the king defeated earlier (with his help?) to destroy the king doesn't seem like the sort to turn to mindless destruction as soon as he wins. Rather, it seems more likely that the undead he raised would act as a part of the curse. They may go through the kingdom, methodically destroying everything that was accomplished through Havendash's power and leadership--not necessarily killing everyone, that's not their goal, but simply revoking every advantage that Havendash gained through his deal with death and eliminating his legacy. Whenever any undead accomplishes its task, it simply lies down in the earth and returns to the grip of death. By 1000 years, all of the undead should have finished erasing Hazerdash's legacy so that even his name is lost to history (and the undead Hazerdash is not allowed to name himself except as the bringer of all of this destruction--as Death's Doomed Herald).

Now, this causes untold destruction and it blots magic from the world for a time but there are lots of people. What causes their death isn't so much the undead themselves as the destruction of the infrastructure that supported their way of life and the infighting and tribal battles that spring up in the wake of a civilization's destruction. So, when the PCs return, it's not as the last, best hope of the kingdom against the undead hordes. Instead, they return as the hope to bring civilization out of barbarism, to conquer the feral land, and return people to order and prosperity. That's more of a savage frontier, carving civilization from the jungle than a brave rebellion game but it could well be a lot of fun. But, if the PCs rebuild civilization in Hazerdash's name or use his laws, they will awaken the ire of Death anew and all their works shall be for naught. (Or alternatively, they could face a key battle and be offered a similar choice--with similar potential consequences).

 

[shilsen]

Sadly, I thought the title for this thread was "An undead invasion toppless civilization...". Even more sadly, my first thought on reading it was not "Woohoo! Topless zombies!" but "That's not grammatically correct".

 

[Dogbrain]

I also prefer a less evil Death. I would portray Death as remorseless and inexorable, but Death cares nothing for suffering. It neither is moved to pity nor does it enjoy the agonies it inflicts. Getting its due is all that matters. The original bargain was not for the entire world to die. Death did not act in vengeance, Death acted in balance. All who were slain would have eventually died, anyway, so it's not a matter of gain, as far as Death is concerned.

However, in the process, Death may have employed self-willed undead, who set up their own empires. This wouldn't matter to Death, but the self-aware undead would certainly claim otherwise. They would claim that they were the ongoing and constant agents of "Lord Death", thus, in punishment for their ancient crimes, mortals must bow to them. Death cares nothing for this, for or against. All that mattered was that the works of Havendish would perish while Havendish was denied the peace that Death could grant. These works have nearly perished, but now the PCs show up and start mucking about. This would probably not even come to Death's notice for a while. Eventually, Death would take a look at the unusual mayhem that PCs always leave in their wake. Are they trying to re-establish Havendish's realm? If so, then Death will rebalance the accounts. Have they other goals?

Death could even become an ally, far down the road. After all, Death seems to be jealous of its prerogatives, and a bunch of uppity undead who are arrogating its name and claiming its continuing sponsorship could accidentally be setting themselves up for their own settling of accounts.

Also, over this much time, I could see several religions worshipping Death arising. Many would be sponsored by undead rulers and would be fairly typical fantasy "death cults", but here are some other possibilities:

Mortals seek to placate Death by worship, asking it to remove its yoke. Since it is not acting to maintain the current state of affairs (it's also not acting to alter the current state of affairs--Death just doesn't care), Death generally ignores them. They would have very little power if they are all just ordinary mortals.

Mortals seek to bargain with Death. These groups tend to be very small orders of mass murderers. Again, Death ignores them. Death doesn't care if one person is killed or a million are killed. Everybody eventually dies.

Mortals reinterpret Death as an inexorable deity of pure Order. The catastrophe happened because a bargain was broken. If Death ever notices these people it might be amused by them.

At first, the PCs would find themselves in opposition against local undead rulers. Generally, self-willed undead have enough of the greed and drives of life to find lots of living slaves to be useful. Zombies are fine for grunt work, but it's much more cost effective to use them to terrorize living masses to do ones grunt labor. Living creatures tend to also be better at following orders to the spirit than to the letter. However, there could also be pure realms of undeath, where the masters simply have no use for the living.