Do you think they'd take him serious?
- Thread starter Moe Ronalds
- Start date
Hehe. Sharp pointy teeth is exactly what I thought of too. I like the spider climb idea as well. You could really make him seem as if he was undead himself when really he's just a gnome necromancer with some really terrifying habits and grooming...
You enter an enormous room at the center of the long abandoned temple to Pelor. The sharp acrid tang of fresh blood mixed with a dry, dusty, smell fills your nostrils. There is an aisle down the center of the room straddled by giant pillars that reach up into the impenetrable darkness of the vaulted ceiling far above. On either side of the aisle are rows of benches that are knocked askew in random directions and are in various states of collapse. At the end of the aisle is an altar, and next to it a ceremonial basin filled with a dark liquid.
The thick layer of dust that covers everything is disturbed by shuffling prints tracked through the room coming from and leading toward every direction imaginable: across the floor, over the benches, up the pillars, down the walls. Upon closer examination you notice that the tracks are made with small bloody handprints.
You suddenly become aware of a shuffling sound, but the reverberance of the great hall makes it impossible to pinpoint the source. In the dark of the ceiling above you can just make out a rustling movement. Before you have time to react, down one of the pillars, upside-down, crawls a small gnome with pale, emaciated, features and deep, dark, eyes that hold a deep and disturbing intelligence. He holds a dismembered arm in his hand, which he is gnawing on with sharp, pointed, teeth. The arm falls from his hand and slides to the ground below. "First I kill you in a slow and agonizing fashion...then the suffering begins." He snarls at you and blood drips from between his teeth. With lightning speed he races back up the pillar and into the darkness above. You hear the ominous sounds of chanting echoing from the ceiling of the chamber...
Perhaps the most terrifying part of the encounter will be when they realize that he isn't undead at all, just stark, raving, mad!
You enter an enormous room at the center of the long abandoned temple to Pelor. The sharp acrid tang of fresh blood mixed with a dry, dusty, smell fills your nostrils. There is an aisle down the center of the room straddled by giant pillars that reach up into the impenetrable darkness of the vaulted ceiling far above. On either side of the aisle are rows of benches that are knocked askew in random directions and are in various states of collapse. At the end of the aisle is an altar, and next to it a ceremonial basin filled with a dark liquid.
The thick layer of dust that covers everything is disturbed by shuffling prints tracked through the room coming from and leading toward every direction imaginable: across the floor, over the benches, up the pillars, down the walls. Upon closer examination you notice that the tracks are made with small bloody handprints.
You suddenly become aware of a shuffling sound, but the reverberance of the great hall makes it impossible to pinpoint the source. In the dark of the ceiling above you can just make out a rustling movement. Before you have time to react, down one of the pillars, upside-down, crawls a small gnome with pale, emaciated, features and deep, dark, eyes that hold a deep and disturbing intelligence. He holds a dismembered arm in his hand, which he is gnawing on with sharp, pointed, teeth. The arm falls from his hand and slides to the ground below. "First I kill you in a slow and agonizing fashion...then the suffering begins." He snarls at you and blood drips from between his teeth. With lightning speed he races back up the pillar and into the darkness above. You hear the ominous sounds of chanting echoing from the ceiling of the chamber...
Perhaps the most terrifying part of the encounter will be when they realize that he isn't undead at all, just stark, raving, mad!
the Jester
Legend
Kinda reminds me of an old mega-adventure I wrote a few years back, the Hill of Skulls...
For those of you who remember the various types of demihuman vampires in Ravenloft 2e, one level of the dungeon was inhabited by three gnomish vampires... their leader, Badseed, was a trapmaking rogue, one of them was an illusionist, and the third was their jester (a prestige class in my 3e game, it used to be a base class.) Terrible, terrible danger was in their lair....
For those of you who remember the various types of demihuman vampires in Ravenloft 2e, one level of the dungeon was inhabited by three gnomish vampires... their leader, Badseed, was a trapmaking rogue, one of them was an illusionist, and the third was their jester (a prestige class in my 3e game, it used to be a base class.) Terrible, terrible danger was in their lair....
eXodus
Explorer
gnome necromancer!
damn that is some funny feces! oh yes that is funny!!
all the better though. the pcs will laugh. they will joke amongst themselves, and that is when necro-gnome will slaughter them.
it will make for a good story later on.
player one: hey, bro. d'you remember when our entire party was wiped out by that blus-skinned necro-gnome?
player two: oh, yeah i do. that was great when he killed all of our characters and made us his undead bitches! oh that was funny!
see what i mean? the players will love it!
damn that is some funny feces! oh yes that is funny!!
all the better though. the pcs will laugh. they will joke amongst themselves, and that is when necro-gnome will slaughter them.
it will make for a good story later on.
player one: hey, bro. d'you remember when our entire party was wiped out by that blus-skinned necro-gnome?
player two: oh, yeah i do. that was great when he killed all of our characters and made us his undead bitches! oh that was funny!
see what i mean? the players will love it!
Bran Blackbyrd
Explorer
Interesting stuff. This could prove useful to me since I'm planning on having a halfling necromancer as a villain somewhere along the way in my game. Can she wear tartan and still be taken seriously? I just don't know. 
The tough part is making her seem, not like she was born evil, but rather that she and her people have been so wronged at the hands of humans that she just doesn't care about how horribly she treats the living any longer.
Making a villain that your players will sympathize with, as well as despise is rough.
That spiderclimb and expeditious retreat thing is nuts. As soon as I read it, I could picture the creepy little guy scuttling all over the place in a most unsettling manner. Like Aliens in the duct work, only smaller.
Having the PCs walk in just as he's pulling a ceremonial dagger out of the body of a freshly-killed, healthy, robust fighter type would go a long way to pointing out that he's one dangerous fellow.
The tough part is making her seem, not like she was born evil, but rather that she and her people have been so wronged at the hands of humans that she just doesn't care about how horribly she treats the living any longer.
Making a villain that your players will sympathize with, as well as despise is rough.
That spiderclimb and expeditious retreat thing is nuts. As soon as I read it, I could picture the creepy little guy scuttling all over the place in a most unsettling manner. Like Aliens in the duct work, only smaller.
Having the PCs walk in just as he's pulling a ceremonial dagger out of the body of a freshly-killed, healthy, robust fighter type would go a long way to pointing out that he's one dangerous fellow.
The Sunderer
First Post
I once had three 3rd level (2E) characters hide in a cupboard purely based upon my description of the 5 kobolds they were facing....
Of course the Kobolds (being Rat Bastards) then piled all of the furniture in the room against the door of said cupboard and set it alight.
Of course the Kobolds (being Rat Bastards) then piled all of the furniture in the room against the door of said cupboard and set it alight.
The halfling child-killer from the Baldur's Gate computer games was at once creepy and despicable, not half because you don't expect that sort of thing from halflings. The stereotype became twisted, and therefore memorable.
Sure you can make this gnome a monster. As a particularly grisly example, suppose he has a height-based inferiority complex, such that he cuts the legs off his captives. His diminuitive size no longer becomes a point of humour the moment you add this, for instance.
Sure you can make this gnome a monster. As a particularly grisly example, suppose he has a height-based inferiority complex, such that he cuts the legs off his captives. His diminuitive size no longer becomes a point of humour the moment you add this, for instance.
Moe Ronalds
First Post
Awesome...
Okay! Once I make this guy I think I'll post him up... And actually, I was thinking of him being one of two necromancers in my game, what that gets killed, one that's always around bugging the hell out of them. I'll post the desc. on this thread once I'm done with him, like I said.
Okay! Once I make this guy I think I'll post him up... And actually, I was thinking of him being one of two necromancers in my game, what that gets killed, one that's always around bugging the hell out of them. I'll post the desc. on this thread once I'm done with him, like I said.
