hewligan
First Post
Introducing the Nerkal
A large tribe of goblins, worshipping true death and their necromantic leader, with great plans afoot...
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I found this old concept I had part-sketched out in one of my files and decided to share it here.
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Only a glorious death is a true death. All others end in rebirth, and a continuance of the slow purgatory of life. The Nerkal worship this ideal of a true afterlife, believing that only those who die a honourable death can ever hope to attain Goblin nirvana. The memories of those who have passed (great heroes and leaders) are worshipped, and the Nerkal believe that it is possible to be possessed by the power of those who have ascended through sacrifice and worship.
The Nerkal are led by the dark shaman, Onthrin the Wasted. Onthrin is an old goblin who suffers from a wasting skin disease, making his teeth and bones visible through his hanging shreds of rotten flesh. Onthrin has evoked powerful, dark magics in order to extend his life, and some outsiders fear that he is slowly moving towards becoming a lich. Onthrin is a powerful necromancer who commands a legion of skeletal horrors of all types. He keeps a skeletal rat companion with whom he shares his secrets, and his personal guard is a gigantic bone construct that towers around nine feet tall (the skeletal reanimation of an ogre). There is a madness beyond comprehension in this powerful goblin shaman, but his people follow his every whim, and a cult has formed around him.
The undead have become an integral part of the Nerkal culture. Skeletons, often the raised corpses of dead goblins as the Nerkal believe that the body is but a shell, are used as servitor workers. It is not uncommon to stumble upon a Nerkal mine with hardly a living goblin in sight, except a junior necromantic shaman overseeing a veritable army of skeletal workers who silently go about their duties of digging, lifting, pulling, and so on.
The tribe themselves number some three thousand goblins, with around one thousand skeletal servants, and another fifty or so more dangerous undead servants. The tribe are spread across four small mining complexes, with the central Vicestar Halls (a non-dwarven holde of unknown ancestory) housing about two thousand Nerkal, and the surface fort town of Undracon housing another thousand (Undracon acts as the entrance to the Vicestar Halls, and while crumbling in places is still a formidable squat fort on a raised spur of rock, making it a very difficult place to attack).
Undracon guards the several known entrances to the Vicestar Halls, althoug the underground caverns of the Vicestar are cut across by a fast flowing underground river. Within the waters of the river, some fallen bridges and sections of pillars are visible jutting from the twisting waters. The halls themselves house several cavernous chambers of cut stone, but the nerkal tend to live in small burrows and the abandoned mine shafts that surround the halls.
Onthrin the Wasted lived within a massive stone temple that is fully enclosed within the largest, central chamber of the Vicestar Halls. This temple was present when the nerkal arrived, and the history to its draconic headed god is unknown. The nerkal have draped large banners with the white skull logo of their tribe over the temple, and again in many places within their home. A massive dirty flag bearing the white goblin skull also flies from Undracon fort.
Onthrin the Wasted is an ancient goblin whose life is currently extended through the sacrifice of captives, and when those are not forthcoming, from the ranks of his own people. He is worshipped almost as a god, and the nerkal hold no doubt in their hearts that when he passes from this life it will be to attain true death, meaning that he will not be reborn. Since so much of their perceived power comes from the magic of Onthrin, the tribe are keen for him to prolong his life as long as possible.
Adventure Hooks:
Onthrin the Wasted can become a key, recurring enemy. He is a powerful necromancer (suggested level of around 9-11 in Pathfinder), with a bone golem guard (a skeletal ogre) that should almost always be at his side. He does not travel from his home often, but will happily use his followers to harry the lives of the players. Introducing him into the campaign should be easy by using some (or all, over time) of the following hooks:
The need for sacrifice: In the foothills of the mountains a herder tending his scattered flock of goats has his young wife kidnapped by nerkal. They need a sacrifice of blood to keep Onthrin alive, and decided to pounce on this unsuspecting family. The goblins need to be intercepted before the reach Undracon, or an almost impossible inception and extraction mission will be required. Fortunately a heavy storm forces the goblins to seek shelter in some shallow caves ... can the adventurers track them down in time? What else lies in the cave?
Ogres Can't Swim: When the skeleton of a giant ogre washes up in the tributary of a river, the villagers that stumbled upon it at first thought little of it. But as they dragged the corpse back to their village on a cart, it reanimated. While the villagers did manage to escape, their horses and cart were found dead and destroyed upon their return, but with no sign of the skeletal ogre. The adventurers are asked to investigate, and if they do so should be able to track the tributary back up to its mountain source. They find it comes cascading from a large cave-like entrance, at the base of which they should find the skeletal ogre trying to climb back up to the cave entrance (not doing very well). Tracking inside the cave should reveal one of the nerkal mine complexes, run by a low-level necromancer and the skeletal servants he commands. The adventurers should be able to determine where the iron ore is being shipped, and in theory could even explore all the way up to the Vicestar Halls (although they should not be powerful enough to comfortably proceed at this point). There is a LOT of iron ore being mined. Is something being planned? If the adventurers somehow dispose of the ogre skeleton, they can expect Onthrin to be upset at the loss of his most fearsome servant, and perhaps a little nervous of those who dispatched him.
The Black Flag: Word filters to the adventurers of a splintered group of dwarves, the Zhanoi, that have been outcast from their clanhold for undertaking dark rituals to augment their weapon smithing. The Zhanoi have been approached by the Nerkal to forge an alliance. Hired by the dwarves of Kanthor, the clan that uncovered and cast out the Zhanoi, the adventurers are told of the proposed allegiance between the Nerkal and the Zhanoi. They are asked to intercept a Zhanhoi envoy group travelling along the forbidden routes of the old Dark Holdes towards Nerkal territory. Can the heroes survive the Dark Holdes, forbidden to all Dwarves, and intercept the Zhanoi before a fell allegiance is forged?
Smelting the Ore: The Nerkal have the iron, but they failed to secure a partnership with the Zhanoi dwarves due to the adventurers. Onthrin has now decided to assassinate the adventurers, and then pounce on the distant dwarven holde of Kanthor to secure the forging expertise. Onthrin does not expect the dwarves to come easily, but he thinks he knows a way to have then serve his will: kill them and then raise them as his undead blacksmiths. Only if the adventurers survive the assasination attempt will they gain some clues about the impending assault of Kanthor. You can play this as a race against time to warn the Dwarves, a hold-out against a relentless seige where the dead and endlessly reanimated, or a hit and run to try and neutralise the goblin necromancer before the attack succeeds.
A Greater Evil: The question should remain - what was the purpose of gathering all of this iron ore, and why the drive to hire smiths to work the iron? What were the Nerkal up to? The answer may be that they were vassals to an even greater evil that is planning an attack on the human or Dwarven lands, and the Nerkal were to forge weapons and armour in preparation of this assault. Perhaps the Nerkal were to build an undead army of constructs, encased in iron armour, fighting relentlessly to expand their holdings. Perhaps Onthrin was in league with a human nation that has been trying to break the fierce metal trade monopoly of the Dwarves, regardless of the price? Or perhaps onthrin, in the genius depths of his madness, has at last pieced together the puzzle as to the old Dragon God that his tribe's dwelling place was build to worship. Perhaps this god is to be constructed, metal scale by metal scale, and then raised using the powerful necromatic magics of Onthrin, and a mass sacrifice .....
A large tribe of goblins, worshipping true death and their necromantic leader, with great plans afoot...
-------
I found this old concept I had part-sketched out in one of my files and decided to share it here.
-------
Only a glorious death is a true death. All others end in rebirth, and a continuance of the slow purgatory of life. The Nerkal worship this ideal of a true afterlife, believing that only those who die a honourable death can ever hope to attain Goblin nirvana. The memories of those who have passed (great heroes and leaders) are worshipped, and the Nerkal believe that it is possible to be possessed by the power of those who have ascended through sacrifice and worship.
The Nerkal are led by the dark shaman, Onthrin the Wasted. Onthrin is an old goblin who suffers from a wasting skin disease, making his teeth and bones visible through his hanging shreds of rotten flesh. Onthrin has evoked powerful, dark magics in order to extend his life, and some outsiders fear that he is slowly moving towards becoming a lich. Onthrin is a powerful necromancer who commands a legion of skeletal horrors of all types. He keeps a skeletal rat companion with whom he shares his secrets, and his personal guard is a gigantic bone construct that towers around nine feet tall (the skeletal reanimation of an ogre). There is a madness beyond comprehension in this powerful goblin shaman, but his people follow his every whim, and a cult has formed around him.
The undead have become an integral part of the Nerkal culture. Skeletons, often the raised corpses of dead goblins as the Nerkal believe that the body is but a shell, are used as servitor workers. It is not uncommon to stumble upon a Nerkal mine with hardly a living goblin in sight, except a junior necromantic shaman overseeing a veritable army of skeletal workers who silently go about their duties of digging, lifting, pulling, and so on.
The tribe themselves number some three thousand goblins, with around one thousand skeletal servants, and another fifty or so more dangerous undead servants. The tribe are spread across four small mining complexes, with the central Vicestar Halls (a non-dwarven holde of unknown ancestory) housing about two thousand Nerkal, and the surface fort town of Undracon housing another thousand (Undracon acts as the entrance to the Vicestar Halls, and while crumbling in places is still a formidable squat fort on a raised spur of rock, making it a very difficult place to attack).
Undracon guards the several known entrances to the Vicestar Halls, althoug the underground caverns of the Vicestar are cut across by a fast flowing underground river. Within the waters of the river, some fallen bridges and sections of pillars are visible jutting from the twisting waters. The halls themselves house several cavernous chambers of cut stone, but the nerkal tend to live in small burrows and the abandoned mine shafts that surround the halls.
Onthrin the Wasted lived within a massive stone temple that is fully enclosed within the largest, central chamber of the Vicestar Halls. This temple was present when the nerkal arrived, and the history to its draconic headed god is unknown. The nerkal have draped large banners with the white skull logo of their tribe over the temple, and again in many places within their home. A massive dirty flag bearing the white goblin skull also flies from Undracon fort.
Onthrin the Wasted is an ancient goblin whose life is currently extended through the sacrifice of captives, and when those are not forthcoming, from the ranks of his own people. He is worshipped almost as a god, and the nerkal hold no doubt in their hearts that when he passes from this life it will be to attain true death, meaning that he will not be reborn. Since so much of their perceived power comes from the magic of Onthrin, the tribe are keen for him to prolong his life as long as possible.
Adventure Hooks:
Onthrin the Wasted can become a key, recurring enemy. He is a powerful necromancer (suggested level of around 9-11 in Pathfinder), with a bone golem guard (a skeletal ogre) that should almost always be at his side. He does not travel from his home often, but will happily use his followers to harry the lives of the players. Introducing him into the campaign should be easy by using some (or all, over time) of the following hooks:
The need for sacrifice: In the foothills of the mountains a herder tending his scattered flock of goats has his young wife kidnapped by nerkal. They need a sacrifice of blood to keep Onthrin alive, and decided to pounce on this unsuspecting family. The goblins need to be intercepted before the reach Undracon, or an almost impossible inception and extraction mission will be required. Fortunately a heavy storm forces the goblins to seek shelter in some shallow caves ... can the adventurers track them down in time? What else lies in the cave?
Ogres Can't Swim: When the skeleton of a giant ogre washes up in the tributary of a river, the villagers that stumbled upon it at first thought little of it. But as they dragged the corpse back to their village on a cart, it reanimated. While the villagers did manage to escape, their horses and cart were found dead and destroyed upon their return, but with no sign of the skeletal ogre. The adventurers are asked to investigate, and if they do so should be able to track the tributary back up to its mountain source. They find it comes cascading from a large cave-like entrance, at the base of which they should find the skeletal ogre trying to climb back up to the cave entrance (not doing very well). Tracking inside the cave should reveal one of the nerkal mine complexes, run by a low-level necromancer and the skeletal servants he commands. The adventurers should be able to determine where the iron ore is being shipped, and in theory could even explore all the way up to the Vicestar Halls (although they should not be powerful enough to comfortably proceed at this point). There is a LOT of iron ore being mined. Is something being planned? If the adventurers somehow dispose of the ogre skeleton, they can expect Onthrin to be upset at the loss of his most fearsome servant, and perhaps a little nervous of those who dispatched him.
The Black Flag: Word filters to the adventurers of a splintered group of dwarves, the Zhanoi, that have been outcast from their clanhold for undertaking dark rituals to augment their weapon smithing. The Zhanoi have been approached by the Nerkal to forge an alliance. Hired by the dwarves of Kanthor, the clan that uncovered and cast out the Zhanoi, the adventurers are told of the proposed allegiance between the Nerkal and the Zhanoi. They are asked to intercept a Zhanhoi envoy group travelling along the forbidden routes of the old Dark Holdes towards Nerkal territory. Can the heroes survive the Dark Holdes, forbidden to all Dwarves, and intercept the Zhanoi before a fell allegiance is forged?
Smelting the Ore: The Nerkal have the iron, but they failed to secure a partnership with the Zhanoi dwarves due to the adventurers. Onthrin has now decided to assassinate the adventurers, and then pounce on the distant dwarven holde of Kanthor to secure the forging expertise. Onthrin does not expect the dwarves to come easily, but he thinks he knows a way to have then serve his will: kill them and then raise them as his undead blacksmiths. Only if the adventurers survive the assasination attempt will they gain some clues about the impending assault of Kanthor. You can play this as a race against time to warn the Dwarves, a hold-out against a relentless seige where the dead and endlessly reanimated, or a hit and run to try and neutralise the goblin necromancer before the attack succeeds.
A Greater Evil: The question should remain - what was the purpose of gathering all of this iron ore, and why the drive to hire smiths to work the iron? What were the Nerkal up to? The answer may be that they were vassals to an even greater evil that is planning an attack on the human or Dwarven lands, and the Nerkal were to forge weapons and armour in preparation of this assault. Perhaps the Nerkal were to build an undead army of constructs, encased in iron armour, fighting relentlessly to expand their holdings. Perhaps Onthrin was in league with a human nation that has been trying to break the fierce metal trade monopoly of the Dwarves, regardless of the price? Or perhaps onthrin, in the genius depths of his madness, has at last pieced together the puzzle as to the old Dragon God that his tribe's dwelling place was build to worship. Perhaps this god is to be constructed, metal scale by metal scale, and then raised using the powerful necromatic magics of Onthrin, and a mass sacrifice .....
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