Wow!!! I want to thank everyone for fantastic responses so far. I have read through them and wanted to provide some insight into some of the questions being asked. Then I will jump into some more of the way my thoughts are drifting.
Some of the questions that seemed to jump up, (a couple that Felix already addressed)
1. Why does Heironeous not grant spells? (and extrapolating) what are the reletive powers of Kord, Cuthbert, and Pelor?
Heironeous has been trapped inside some sort of crystal that is limiting his total influence on the prime plane to a 100 yard radius around that crystal. The party strongly suspects Hextor had a hand in this.
In matters of religion and influence, the party has been gone 1 year and when they left, the relation of religious influence in the country was somewhat similar to the following:
- Heironeous – Modern Day Catholic Church (Large Reach, State Religion, Etc)
- Pelor – Modern day Mormans (not a small religion, tended to do a whole lot of “knocking on doors”)
- Kord – Modern day Ballys Gym (Great facilities, would preach to you their beliefs, but were not a force to be reckoned with)
- St. Cuthbert – Who? Oh, those (5) crazy religious fanatics who meet down at the little hole in the wall?
- Nerull – Who? You mean those undertakers are part of some freaky death cult?
With the party returning to the country after a year, the largest change was that the Church of Heironeous was no longer helping anyone out really (no healing, no blessings, service attendance was dropping drastically, no miracles). The church of Nerull is only really regarded as a religion by the military, which is where their healing is being most directly expierineced. The church of Nerull, in offering “healing” to non-military is doing it through free clinics and assistance to the poor, not through any Magic or Miracles. Their priests are known in the military, and through those associated with the military, but the common people just see those black-cloaked charity social workers. This is the first major move toward a significant visible religious presence that the church has taken. Also, Pelor hasonly begun to rise in prominence within 4 weeks of game time, only in the city of AT.
2. Now, that leads nicely into the explanation of the influence the clerics of Nerul have over Mortimers military generals, and also to their influence over him. Basically, Mortimer has just been notified (upon his return), that with his brother (the old leader of the country) MIA, he is to take over. The 2 military generalswere caught with their proverbial pants down, with the Clerics and Paladins of Heironeous who were attached to the military drastically reduced in their effective rolls. Shortly thereafter, the church of Nerull (just black robed priests at the time) stepped in and provided the needed magics. It was only after a time that these priests were revealed as who they are, but at that point, the Generals saw no evil actions from them, so they embraced the healing, miracles, potions, and support. The generals have expressed to Mortimer that as far as they are concerned, they do not care who supports the military with healing and divine magics, as long as the support is there. With the church of Heironeous being integral to the military for currently remembered history, the generals do not know how to operate at peak effectiveness without access to divine magic.
3. This also leads to who the enemies are that the country is at war with. Mortimer returned to find he is put in control of only a third of his country. An additional third of his country, to include the capitol city containing the primary church of Heironeous, the Crystal trapping Heironeous, and the primary leaders residence, is controlled by enemy number 1. This enemy is understood by Mortimer and the party to be composed of doppelgangers lead by an advanced Medusa. The party does know that Mortimers brother is currently a guest of the medusa, in a very stoned state.
The second third of the country, the party has discovered upon their return, is controlled by the remnants of an Orc hoard that they assisted in scattering early in the campaign. This Orc hoard has built 3 small towns/cities and seized control of the land surrounding those cities. The party knows that the orcs are lead by a group of advanced orcs known as War Orcs along with a young Red Dragon.
The party was also informed upon their return that while there was much upheaval in the year they were absent from their country, the last 3 months has seen things stabilize into the divisions that are currently in place. There are still skirmishes, but no all out war. Mortimer has begun to take measures, with pressure from his generals, to marshal his forces and “liberate” the other 2/3 of the country.
4. So, some other important information that may/may not bring thoughts to bear. While E-B’s points of view were excellent, there was one part (and pretty much only one part) of his post that would not be part of Mortimers thinking. In the majority of the game world, Undead are a bedtime story told to scare children. As far as 90% of the world are concerned, undead are a myth and simply not true. The only member of the party who actually knows the truth about undead is the cleric of Pelor, who comes from that section of the world where there is a plague of undeath and evil. Also, as she is a Sacred Exorcist with a focus on undead eradication, she knows the truth first hand. Unfortunately, this character just joined the party when the party returned to the country.
5. Oh, and Mortimer is not a paladin. He is actually a Ranger who’s primary favored enemy is Orcs and secondary is Shape Changers. Mortimer is Neutral Good, who was once Chaotic Good and got shifted to NG for recurring actions.
6. Which leads nicely to the next point I wanted to say. I actually like the fact that in 3rd edition (3.0/3.5), alignment changes are no longer necessarily a punishment. I try to maintain alignment as a proper reflection of how the player is playing their character so that the in game ramifications of alignment are effective. Now, in this case (which is why I was/am struggling with my consideration), the current campaign does not allow evil characters. I should note that with a drastic move to evil, I seize the character. Now, to be fair, I have seized 2 characters so far and then returned the characters so the players could rethink/readdress their actions. Mortimers actions happened at the end of the game, and my immediate consideration was 2 fold. 1. this was done for the greater good, but utilized clearly bad bad evil, and as such it’s a drastic action that should push Mort back to CG. 2. This was a drastic action utilizing clearly bad bad evil that was done so Mort could assuage his own ego and did not need help from the party. The player has walked a thin line of actions along both of these motivations from time to time, and the depth of the evil he was dealing with in this case was an escalation to drastic motivations in my thinking. Then again, I still have not decided my final actions yet.
7. And finally for those still reading I will explain the demon. This is a teaser for the party, adding to their meta-game knowledge, but that’s ok.
It is a demon, and a very bad one. It is a “mildly” advanced Shadow Demon (BoVD) who has possessed a mortal. Shadow demons trade in souls to gain power. Often they work as advisors behind the scenes of evil power centers. (Powerful fiends, powerful demonologists, evil kings, evil dragons, etc) In this case, the shadow demon has somehow entered the service of Nerull, which it has openly revealed to the party once they ascertained its true nature. Advancing the standing of the church of Nerull in this part of the world is actually providing the shadow demon with a direct percentage of the souls that are reaped by Nerull and the church. This reason alone is enough to cause this demon to consort with devils to create contracts that it will happily abide by. Interestingly enough, the contract completed with Mortimer is between the country and the church, not directly with the demon and Mortimer. Mortimer and the demon simply acted as the rightful executors of their respective organizations.
My current thoughts from the posts to date are still not firmed up as a decision. I am leaning toward an alignment change to CG, along with the fact Mortimer and party have a whole host of in game consequences to deal with. I have to admit that BardStephenFox had a suggestion that strikes deeply into my Dark DM heart. The idea of moving Mortimers alignment but not officially telling him, and allowing the parties “Detect Evil” sensors to start ringing has a certain likable taste to it. This would be especially confusing for parts of the party because much of the party are most likely to refuse to believe that Mortimer has gone to the dark side. I am only worried in this case about causing inter-party conflict that begins to make the game not enjoyable, so I have to consider this a great deal more.
If there are more comments, suggestions, or just thoughts, I would love to hear them.
