[Midnight] Defeating the Shadow

[Calico_Jack73]

Here are a couple options that I came up with to make Midnight not quite so bleak and to provide hope to the party:

1) The Sleeping Army: Deep within the Kaladrun mountains a vast chamber was created. A mighty army was sent into the chamber and was subsequently voluntarily turned into stone to wait out the ages (no food, water, or air required) until the time was right to be changed back and to take up a new fight against Izrador. Sealed inside the chamber would be numerous wands of Stone to Flesh that whomever found them could use to change them back.
2) Army of the Undead: I actually used this one. In ages past a city pleged alegience to Izrador but in the early fighting fell to a Dornish army. An army of Izrador was promised to the come to the city's aid but never arrived. With their dying breath the city's defenders and clergy swore a curse against Izrador. The clergy rose from the dead as Quell (check out Libris Mortis) and the rest of the city's defenders rose as Wraiths, Shadows, and other bodiless undead. The Quell can defend the other undead against the spells of the Legates while the rest of the undead make short work of any Orkish attackers. It turned out in my game that one of the PCs (an Ancestral Bladebearer) was a decendent of the rulers of the city and the undead swore alegience to this particular PC. They wouldn't leave the city walls but this gave the party a well defended base of operations.
3) A New Power: Using magic is a sure fire way of attracting the attention of an Astirax. The party, while investigating the ruins of a strange underground race discovers a book filled only with images. Looking at the patterns on each page sequentially opens new pathways of power within the mind of the viewer and then allows them to begin taking Psionic class levels. I would run a "Psionics is different" game where psionics is undetectable by Astriaxes and immune to the null magic area around the mirrors. A "Matrix" twist on this would be if Izrador discovered a way to drain psionic power so that psionic creatures could be used as self recharging "power batteries" and began rounding up slaves and intentionally making them psionic so that vast psionic farms could be created to supplement the energy gathered by the mirrors.

 

[Nifelhein]

Calicko,

I absolutely love #1, chinese army but in a fantasy setting. #2 is interesting adn in your campaign it turned very LotR too. #3 is not my kind of game, but I never actually liked psionics in D&D myself.

 

[Xer0]

Here are a couple options that I came up with to make Midnight not quite so bleak and to provide hope to the party:

[snip]
2) Army of the Undead: I actually used this one. In ages past a city pleged alegience to Izrador but in the early fighting fell to a Dornish army. An army of Izrador was promised to the come to the city's aid but never arrived. With their dying breath the city's defenders and clergy swore a curse against Izrador. The clergy rose from the dead as Quell (check out Libris Mortis) and the rest of the city's defenders rose as Wraiths, Shadows, and other bodiless undead. The Quell can defend the other undead against the spells of the Legates while the rest of the undead make short work of any Orkish attackers. It turned out in my game that one of the PCs (an Ancestral Bladebearer) was a decendent of the rulers of the city and the undead swore alegience to this particular PC. They wouldn't leave the city walls but this gave the party a well defended base of operations.
[/snip]

Ancestral Bladebearer? Just a term to describe the PC or something that mechanical significance?

 

[Nifelhein]

It is a Prestige Class in Midnight, basically the covenant items, whicha re a different kidn of magic item grants you benefits at given levels, with this prestige class he can unlock the next power (one he would not until later levels,generally at least 2, sometimes more than that), in addition he becomes one with his weapon, making disarm, sunder and the like highly unlikely.

I think it can eb found on the Midnight SRD website at http://darknessfalls.leaderdesslok.com/

 

[Slife]

Since the mirrors collect ambient magic and transfer it to Izrador maybe the LOTR way of beating Izrador is to drive all magic out of the world and thus "starve" Izrador into submission.

IIRC, that's how the Pelman series ended.

 

[Nightfall]

LOL Starving a god. Now there's a first.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Ancestral Bladebearer? Just a term to describe the PC or something that mechanical significance?

Ancestral Bladebearer is a PrC in Midnight. The player started out as a Wildlander (non-magical Ranger basic class in Midnight). When the party found the undead city he recovered a covenant magical sword that had belonged to his family in ages past. The Ancestral Bladebearer PrC then enhances the character's abilities with the covenant weapon.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Actually I was just thinking, I'd be kind of neat to run an Epic Midnight campaign where the PCs are Epic Level heros who submitted to being turned to stone to come back at a later time to stage a guerilla war against Izrador when Epic heros are needed most.

Hmmmm... might have to give some thought to that.

 

[Xer0]

Ancestral Bladebearer is a PrC in Midnight. The player started out as a Wildlander (non-magical Ranger basic class in Midnight). When the party found the undead city he recovered a covenant magical sword that had belonged to his family in ages past. The Ancestral Bladebearer PrC then enhances the character's abilities with the covenant weapon.

Oh, cool. Thanks for the info.

 

[Castellan]

*bump* because this is really an awesome thread, and I just started my first Midnight campaign and am always looking for more good ideas.