Darth_Asparagus
First Post
Hi,
I want to run the Pyramid of Shadows in the Forgotten Realms. This is my background story for the pyramid. If there is anything that runs counter to canon or could be improved, please let me know. Otherwise, I would like to share this thing - there does not seem to be a conversion around yet.
The Background:
During the Thayan civil war one of the generals fighting on the side of the Zulkirs was Karavakos. The general was a red wizard of the school of conjuration and had a rather dubious origin. Karavakos was a tiefling and rumours made him the “son of Orcus”. (Acutally, he had the blood of a favourite lackey of Orcus in his veins.)
Karavakos was an important player in some of the later battles and even managed to get the support of an elven general from Aglarond who felt that the Zulkirs were the lesser of two evils. The foreign general was known by his nom de guerre Tephone, and operated mostly behind the lines.
After the eventual victory of Szass Tamm, Karavakos was cornered in a minor fortress together with Tephone. In the epic battle that ensued, Tephone was slain but his severed head was rescued by his elven bodyguard. Karavakos was captured and brought before the lich emperor.
Little is known about what happened next but rumour has it that the lich did not want to offend the Prince of Undeath and thus created a specialized prison for the “son of Orcus”. (There is a kernel of truth to that but Tamm wanted to create this prison anyway and has used it to get rid of a quite a few of his enemies.)
The pyramid is an extradimensional prison that jumps between the world, the Shadowfell and the Elemental Chaos in an irregular pattern. After about 75 years, the pyramid entered a spellplagued spot in the Yuirwood and took some serious damage. In the process, it got a strange leak and also become semi-anchored to the swamp, frequently reappearing there. Experimenting with the leak, Karavakos almost got himself killed but after about 2 decades was able to start sending messages to the outside world in the form of dreams.
One of the first people to receive the dreams was Eidolos, the son of Karavakos who had been converted into a vampire early in the war and had been fighting for the forces of the lich. Disturbed by the dreams, Eidolos was able to shake the will of his creator and started rebelling against his local Autrach. He began looking for ways to find the Pyramid of Shadows, when he managed to get his hands on the skull of Tephone.
The skull of Tephone had become a powerful artefact thanks to Tempus, the god of war. Tempus felt that Tephone’s knowledge should not be lost to the world and also felt that Tephone would start working against Thay and thus against Bane who seems to covet the portfolio of war.
Tephone and Eidolos used powerful rituals to find the next spot were the pyramid will appear next. The vampire assembled a group of mercenaries (taken from a school of gladiators) and went straight to the Yuirwood. There, he is waiting for the pyramid to appear out of nothing to allow him rescuing his father. What Tephone has neglected to tell the vampire is that he who frees Karavakos will have to sacrifice his life force to allow the ancient conjurer to leave his prison.
I want to run the Pyramid of Shadows in the Forgotten Realms. This is my background story for the pyramid. If there is anything that runs counter to canon or could be improved, please let me know. Otherwise, I would like to share this thing - there does not seem to be a conversion around yet.
The Background:
During the Thayan civil war one of the generals fighting on the side of the Zulkirs was Karavakos. The general was a red wizard of the school of conjuration and had a rather dubious origin. Karavakos was a tiefling and rumours made him the “son of Orcus”. (Acutally, he had the blood of a favourite lackey of Orcus in his veins.)
Karavakos was an important player in some of the later battles and even managed to get the support of an elven general from Aglarond who felt that the Zulkirs were the lesser of two evils. The foreign general was known by his nom de guerre Tephone, and operated mostly behind the lines.
After the eventual victory of Szass Tamm, Karavakos was cornered in a minor fortress together with Tephone. In the epic battle that ensued, Tephone was slain but his severed head was rescued by his elven bodyguard. Karavakos was captured and brought before the lich emperor.
Little is known about what happened next but rumour has it that the lich did not want to offend the Prince of Undeath and thus created a specialized prison for the “son of Orcus”. (There is a kernel of truth to that but Tamm wanted to create this prison anyway and has used it to get rid of a quite a few of his enemies.)
The pyramid is an extradimensional prison that jumps between the world, the Shadowfell and the Elemental Chaos in an irregular pattern. After about 75 years, the pyramid entered a spellplagued spot in the Yuirwood and took some serious damage. In the process, it got a strange leak and also become semi-anchored to the swamp, frequently reappearing there. Experimenting with the leak, Karavakos almost got himself killed but after about 2 decades was able to start sending messages to the outside world in the form of dreams.
One of the first people to receive the dreams was Eidolos, the son of Karavakos who had been converted into a vampire early in the war and had been fighting for the forces of the lich. Disturbed by the dreams, Eidolos was able to shake the will of his creator and started rebelling against his local Autrach. He began looking for ways to find the Pyramid of Shadows, when he managed to get his hands on the skull of Tephone.
The skull of Tephone had become a powerful artefact thanks to Tempus, the god of war. Tempus felt that Tephone’s knowledge should not be lost to the world and also felt that Tephone would start working against Thay and thus against Bane who seems to covet the portfolio of war.
Tephone and Eidolos used powerful rituals to find the next spot were the pyramid will appear next. The vampire assembled a group of mercenaries (taken from a school of gladiators) and went straight to the Yuirwood. There, he is waiting for the pyramid to appear out of nothing to allow him rescuing his father. What Tephone has neglected to tell the vampire is that he who frees Karavakos will have to sacrifice his life force to allow the ancient conjurer to leave his prison.
