D&D 5E Revenant and cross-country

[Arcshot]

Thanks for the comments and ideas. The PCs are traveling far and wide with ships and across settlements, thus prompting me to ponder the obstacles the undead has to face in order to reach its target.

The Revenant was a (evil) priest slew by the PCs. Unknown to them, I decide the villain to be raised as a Revenant by uttering his dying curse which eventually answered by his deity. The PCs ride horses and seldom stay at one place for long. There's a chance to travel by sea/ocean to reach other part of the world. Walking 24hrs would reach them eventually but could take forever. Taking relevant transport will be the most efficient but I really wonder how the Revenant use them in his already-dead body without frightening the common people. How will he keep his cover when walking in towns and city to look for his target. Even a heavy cloak cannot cover his rotting stench. So how a Revenant conceal its identity?

I will gladly give the Revenant a mount. But what is a suitable mount that a Relevant can find? I reckon a normal riding horse would feel unease to carry a walking dead.

Or perhaps I think too much. Just let him appear beside the PCs.

 

[Arcshot]

I've actually got a revenant hunting two of the PCs in my campaign at the moment. It freaks them out! In fact, one player's enjoying it so much he decided to have his teetotaller dwarf fighter start drinking again!

I hope to make the Revenant memorable to the PCs too. Hope that you can share some ideas on using the undead against the PCs.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

The Revenant was a (evil) priest slew by the PCs. Unknown to them, I decide the villain to be raised as a Revenant by uttering his dying curse which eventually answered by his deity. The PCs ride horses and seldom stay at one place for long. There's a chance to travel by sea/ocean to reach other part of the world. Walking 24hrs would reach them eventually but could take forever. Taking relevant transport will be the most efficient but I really wonder how the Revenant use them in his already-dead body without frightening the common people. How will he keep his cover when walking in towns and city to look for his target. Even a heavy cloak cannot cover his rotting stench. So how a Revenant conceal its identity?

I will gladly give the Revenant a mount. But what is a suitable mount that a Relevant can find? I reckon a normal riding horse would feel unease to carry a walking dead.

Seriously. Just cut off the rotting parts, wash, maybe slap some maggots on it, and that smell will vanish. Works every time.

And as long as it doesn't smell too bad, I imagine the horse won't give a .

On a more serious note, have the Revenant travel by suicide. Kill the current body, hop to a corpse closer to the PCs.

 

[pukunui]

Or perhaps I think too much. Just let him appear beside the PCs.

Yes, I think you are overthinking it. Just have him appear whenever it's most dramatically appropriate and don't worry about the nitty-gritty details.

One thing I did when first introducing the revenant was give the two PC targets a dream in which a shadowy figure was pursuing them. It was always behind them, and no matter how fast or how far they ran, it was always there, visible on the horizon when they looked over their shoulders.

So far the revenant's only attacked them once, and I didn't have it cast any spells that time (it was once a cleric as well, although it wasn't evil; the reason it became a revenant is because the PCs assumed it was evil because it was a half-ogre, so when it tried to surrender, they didn't listen and killed it anyway). Next time they face it, it will use its clerical powers on them.

I was actually planning on having the revenant show up at an inopportune time (for the PCs) while they were fighting a different bad guy last session, but the guy playing the main target went home early, and I felt it wouldn't really make sense. So for now, the revenant's just been lurking in the background, like a shadow on the horizon. They know it's out there, waiting ...

 

[Mephista]

Revenants, in my opinion, are like ghosts with a physical body. They remember everything that happened to them in life, and they're driven by a need for vengence of some kind. So, I wouldn't even be wondering if a revenant could blend in. Of course it can. It has the mind of a humanoid. It knows how to trade, it knows how to cover itself in a cloak, it knows how society works.


If you want to have a chase style scene, however... I actually would recommend the rules from Out of the Abyss. Make a counter. Every encounter lowers the coutner by 1, moving quickly raises it by one, and there's a few other details in there as well, I don't recall them all. Make sure you make the noise pretty loud, so that you provide a sense of time counting down until the next attack.

 

[Arcshot]

Yes, I think you are overthinking it. Just have him appear whenever it's most dramatically appropriate and don't worry about the nitty-gritty details.

One thing I did when first introducing the revenant was give the two PC targets a dream in which a shadowy figure was pursuing them. It was always behind them, and no matter how fast or how far they ran, it was always there, visible on the horizon when they looked over their shoulders.

I really like the idea of the dreams. It helps set the tone and suspense before PCs running into the Revenant.

I'm thinking of increasing its CR for each subsequent encounter with it, perhaps casting new terrible spells beside better HP/AC then previous . PCs can increase levels as game progress so this should provide appropriate challenges and new surprises.

 

[Arcshot]

If it dies, it can animate another corpse. It doesn't say how near it must be, so it can animate a corpse close to the target.

This. I didn't see that earlier. I keep thinking it has to be animated immediately after 24hrs. In my game the body was almost destroyed. I can make it return very close to PCs even if they have spent weeks traveling elsewhere. Of course requirement is there must be a corpse nearby.

 

[Searinox Nagharha]

Well if they are adventuring my guess is that Corpses wont be hard to come by