Dragon 370 - Riven Justice: The Mercykillers

[Serendipity]

Wow. This makes me want to subscribe! Sounds awesome.

 

[avin]

Great article.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Who is almost certainly a Deva; he has a reincarnation-based racial power, and is described as unusually pale, with strange patterns on his skin.

Astral majastry also fits...

 

[I'm A Banana]

Arwyl is well into a second century of life. And given Nilesia's rumored fate post FW (either sold into fiendish slavery or publically flayed by The Lady*) it's interesting to speculate on who exactly her daughter might be (the idea of it being Darkwood's kid is an -awesome- plot hook to play with...)

*any mention of that possible fate? I feel kinda guilty on that...

And what do they mention as hooks for a possible Nilesia return?

FYI, Shem:

#1: In grand PS "more rumors than can possibly be true or maybe truth is even stranger..." fashion, there is actually speculation on BOTH fates. Witnesses saw her flayed by the Lady, and people say she's in the Nine Hells. Either way, there's a hook about her returning.

#2: Being Darkwood's daughter is never stated, but mildly implied. She could not be and you could run it fine, but it mentions Nilesia's relationship with the Fated, and Seirrah as her illegitimate child. She obviously takes more after her mother...

#3: Nilesia's return isn't given a LOT of detail. Basically, the rumor starts to build, and the Mercykillers re-join forces, but Arwyl (who is currently in control of the Prison) resists, causing the Mercykillers to fight the core of the Sons of Mercy to re-take the Prison.

I'm kind of a fan of the way Shwalb made sure you could run this without knowing anything about PS history, but made that history valuable if you had it (in that your characters are going to have some interesting links if you've read FW or the Factol's Manifesto). You don't need to have these things to make sense of the article at all, but if you have them, it injects a bit of extra value.

 

[jasin]

Astral majastry also fits...

And makes a fitting contrast to the tieflings' Bloodhunt.

Any guesses about stats? Str and Cha? Wis and Cha?

 

[balard]

O.O Planescape again? And even Shemeska praises it? "IT MUST BE MINE!"

Now to find a way to subscribe....

 

[Keefe the Thief]

Word. Please, Digital River, get Paypal working already. I. want. this. now.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I certainly hope this becomes a regular feature for Dragon.

Cruel Seirrah and Andrezhej are certainly new characters, but I feel they fit quite well into setting.

And they do mention Arwyl Swan's Son as being 150 years old, and Cruel Seirrah might be about 100 years old by implication. While they simply mention Arwyl as not aging because of Torm's blessing, I feel that's very easy to say that other characters simply stopped aging. I like how they keep the whole aging thing ambiguous. There's definitely more than enough reasons to keep certain characters from old canon alive or not depending on the DM's preference.

I'm also a fan of reserving the cant for the opening fiction only. Makes it easier for those who want it or not, for the whole article. I sort of do miss the humourous quotes though.

 

[TerraDave]

Schwalb also wrote some of my favorite 3.5 books (the Elder Evils and Exemplars of Evil), so that guy's on my Watch List.

You have just noticed him now?

Ya, it was Planescape. A testement to 4Es versatility in the right hands...(and we need more of that) but still, reminded why I didn't really get into it back in the day.

And thats ok.

 

[Zsig]

OK, so I'm curious as I don't have a DDI subscription.

They called it playtest. Do they say on the article for what product it's getting published/getting the full thing?


Regarding the Deva speculation, I remember there was an adventure on a Dungeon Magazine featuring a female NPC with a similar ability (memory of a thousand lifetimes) can't say which one was it since as I already said, no DDI subscription for me.

Anyways, seems very interesting, I'd vote for +2 Int/ +2 Wis