The Dark Fortress

[Jürgen Hubert]

I'm currently trying to come up with some ideas for my Exalted campaign. To be specific, I am trying to come up with things to put into the fortress of the First And Forsaken Lion, the mightiest deathlord of the setting.

To provide some background, a deathlord is an extraordinarily mighty ghost (and we are definitely in "Dark Lord" territory here) who has been given power by the forces of universal oblivion itself. Deathlords rule vast stretches of the Underworld, a parallel dimension to the normal world (and which can "bleed over" in some places) where the ghosts of those who still cling to existence dwell. The First and Forsaken Lion has about 750,000 war ghosts and other undead troops, as well as a staggering array of necromantic war machines.

His fortress occupies a large part of a small mountain range in the Underworld, and one of the player characters wants to scout it out in hopes of gaining some insight into his plans. Now I need all sorts of cool ideas about what she can find there - necromantic artifacts, undead siege weapons, especially cruel torture devices, and so on. Don't hesitate to be gruesome in your descriptions - after all, this army does not hesitate to literally forge the souls of the dead into weapons!

Note that we are not using any variation of d20, so I'm not interested in game mechanics - just come up with good descriptions. It should also be noted that there are few undead in the setting that explicitly need to feed on the living to survive (such as ghouls or vampires), so none can be found at that fortress, either. And much of what can be found at this place should be useful for supporting a huge army - the First and Forsaken Lion did not build his fortress so that he can brood and wait for heroes to come and challenge him, but so that he can build up his strength until he has enough power to conquer the world - both of the living and the dead!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Exalted. Now you're talking my language!

How about a chamber with several "pipes" hanging from the ceiling, which produce an almost hypnotic and melodic singing noise constantly. Upon further inspection, however, the pipes are actually removed human windpipes, larnyxes still attached.

Furniture made of bone with skin stretched over the frame is always good, if somewhat cliche.

And he's gotta have an armory full of nice, nasty soulsteel daiklaives and perhaps a couple of goodies thrown in from WotLA.

And, of course, one of the monstraces. If you can get one of the PCs locked into it, even better.

Oooh. How about a "trophy room," where he's collected the faces of all of the Exalted he's killed over the centuries. Imagine the fun when one of the PCs has a flashback to a previous incarnation and discovers that one of the faces hanging from the wall was his.

Ghost-slaves, bound by soulsteel chains....

And, deep within the bowels (which, in Exalted, could be literal bowels) of his fortress, surrounded by traps and vicious beasties of all sorts, a small orichalcum plaque with a single name written on it. The old name of First and Forsaken Lion; only a weapon forged using this plaque in its design and cooled with the blood of 50 Dragon-Blooded Exalted can destroy the Lion...

I need to start thinking about some Deathlord stuff myself as my Exalted circle's about to take on Mask of Winters....

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

These sound all good - perfect to use when or if the PCs penetrates deeper into the fortress.

But do you also have some good ideas for more military stuff - things that strengthen his armies? After all, the First and Forsaken Lion isn't as much into overwrought melodrama as the Mask of Winters. He prefers to just kill you...

 

[Nightchilde-2]

These sound all good - perfect to use when or if the PCs penetrates deeper into the fortress.

But do you also have some good ideas for more military stuff - things that strengthen his armies? After all, the First and Forsaken Lion isn't as much into overwrought melodrama as the Mask of Winters. He prefers to just kill you...

Ohyeah. Kinda got off on my own tangent there, didn't I?

Seige weapons made from lashed together zombies, which writhe and moan as the engine is used. Lead, of course, by war ghosts on magnificent skeletal steeds (or spine chains..because those are just creepy).

Speaking of spine chains, you can't go wrong with a massively long spine chain buffed up with soulsteel "barding" on each section, possibly acting as a wall of shields vs. enemy archers.

Large, undead...somethings...creatures that haven't been seen since the First Age, decked out in war gear. Of course, you wouldn't want to make it an undead behemoth since that's MoW's schtick.

To give the PCs someone to rescue, an entire wagon full of humans...barely alive and crammed into a small space...which are drained of their blood during a seige to feed the ghosts/zombies/Abyssals.

A soulbreaker orb. If you don't have WotLA, think "nuclear weapon." Best yet, if it kills enough people, it creates a new Shadowland. Definitely a useable weapon for a deathlord, and I see no reason why FaFL couldn't have kept one around from the First Age. BTW, my Circle already encountered one of these things and couldn't defuse it..they had to take it off to an unoccupied area and let it detonate. Barely got out of the blast radius in time, too.

Oooh. Cauldrons filled with hot, molten souls which are dumped down on invaders from the walls above. Not only do they take damage from the heated souls, but the souls bite and gnaw at the targets, draining essence pool.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

And now I've got an idea for the architecture.

The top of the entire fortress is enshrouded in fog. But there are a number of tall spires breaking through the fog.

If someone climbs on top of the towers, he will reach a giant scaffolding with strange structures being built on it (sky eaters, among other things). Above him, the stars of the Underworld shine.

And from time to time, the stars move, and form an unblinking eye that stares at the observer.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Oooh. Cauldrons filled with hot, molten souls which are dumped down on invaders from the walls above. Not only do they take damage from the heated souls, but the souls bite and gnaw at the targets, draining essence pool.

While he certainly worries about spies, I don't think the deathlord fears invaders. I mean, he is the First and Forsaken Lion, the ultimate badass to end all badasses (possibly quite literally, if nobody stops him).

On the other hand, this might make for a spiffy siege weapon. Hurl a cauldron with the stuff over the city wall, and watch the fun. Or, since he plans to attack Gem (hey, everybody else does it, so why shouldn't he?), pour it down the lava tubes of that city...

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Or, since he plans to attack Gem (hey, everybody else does it, so why shouldn't he?), pour it down the lava tubes of that city...

Poor Gem....

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Poor Gem....

Hey, it's traditional!

And any way, at this moment the forces trying to destroy the city only include the Fair Folk, a Lunar warlord, and the First and Forsaken Lion. No Realm, no Autochtonians, and definitely no Kukla. Surely those are no insurmountable obstacles for a circle of Solars?

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Hey, it's traditional!

And any way, at this moment the forces trying to destroy the city only include the Fair Folk, a Lunar warlord, and the First and Forsaken Lion. No Realm, no Autochtonians, and definitely no Kukla. Surely those are no insurmountable obstacles for a circle of Solars?

Nah, definitely not.

Fair Folk? A few good Craft Charms will render their most offensive attacks moot.

Lunar warlord? Don't make me laugh.

FaFL...yeah, that could be a challenge.

I haven't done a Gem Gets Whacked story yet. Maybe after the PCs free Thorns...

 

[Kaodi]

He's one to throw in the pure idea camp... a war machine that uses the power of souls to age everything in the path of its ghostly beam... Huge engine, a beam a few dozen feat across, but the catch is that also functions as a kind of soul vortex... Any being killed in the vicinity has its soul sucked into it to be spat back out as part of the weapon, and it barely functions without receiving a constant stream. The more souls it takes in at any given momemt, the more powerful its effect at that moment.

I picture a pitched battle outside the walls of a city with massive, nearly indestructable gates. The machine is activated, and the beam fires at the gates... At first, nothing seems to happen, but as the battle intensifies, the gates begin to age, corrode, or do whatever gates do when the break down into nothingness.