Wight out for REVENGE!

[interwyrm]

This is a continuation of a thread in the rules section about whether or not a succubus controls the wights created by her energy drain.

FrankTheDM brought up the idea of having a wight with class levels hunting down a succubus that was responsible for his death.

Of course, alternatively, the wight could be hunting down any wizard with access to enervation or energy drain as well.

Either way, it's a good idea for a reocurring character (villain). A newly created wight is no match for a 9+th level wizard, or a succubus. What might a wight do to start on its quest for revenge? What might the wight do affter achieving revenge?

I'm thinking that the wight might start by skulking around and murdering easy targets to gather a small force of wights under its command.

Next it might take its small force and attack harder targets to gain some protective equipment. Weapons are probably not going to be a priority at this point because the energy drain attack should be more than sufficient. The wights should be able to gain some new recruits, or at least kill enough to replace losses. The lead wight might order its lieutenants to let it take the killing blow, so it can have direct control over the spawn, or it might simply delegate orders.

Somehow it's got to track its target down. To do this, it will need to either disguise itself as human (it can speak common) or torture people for information. In any case, it will want to keep its motives secret from its target.

Anyone else got some ideas? Why will the party run into this wight? How will both of them survive the encounter?

 

[Land Outcast]

- an evil priest is "stealing" the wight's troops. he requires assistance

- the PCs encounter the full might of the wight's 20 (by now) underlings, and the wight speaks of making a bargain for their lives, maybe he then agrees to move to the woods and hunt orcs instead of townspeople(not useful if the party has an undead hater)

- If a church sends them after the wights, the Wight approaches them disguised, and speaks of him having contracted a terrible curse -keeps secret for some time, if possible convinces them that he is still living but warped- in hopes of evading the hit, and maybe even gaining allies.

 

[phindar]

I think at some point the phrase "Wight Power" should be used.

Wight Power!

 

[interwyrm]

I think at some point the phrase "Wight Power" should be used.

Wight Power!

Tasteless but funny.

 

[Darklone]

Harvest of Darkness (4 Kalamar adventures) has a Wight template. Allows you to keep the class levels you already had.

This sounds a lot like the Revenant undead but less specific. I love the idea and will probably use it sooner or later.

You might even have a PC group killed by energy drain and allow them to go for revenge.

 

[Templetroll]

I once ran an encounter where a party was searching a dungeon for the mage's father, found him, fought him because he was an undead and as he lay, finally, dieing the father told his son to "Ware the white dragon!" Well, son had a flaming sphere and they were on an bridge in the dungeon so he rolled the sphere off the edge into the depths whithout watching what it showed along the way.

Short time later, a dragon shows up on the bridge, with a slight scorch mark on it's pale grey scales. The party is mouthy because they think they can take a wimpy white dragon. Then it scratched the mage and he took 4 damage "okay. *snicker*" and lost two levels. "WHAT?!?"

They realized Dad had warned them about the Wight Dragon... They ended up having to give back dad's corpse and went free. Campaign ended when we moved before they felt comfortable going back.

 

[Shemeska]

Wight Trash

Maybe its just me, but I find it rather warped to have the victims of a succubi's energy drain rise as undead that are typically... LE. Sounds more like an unintended side effect of having energy drain victims rise as wights, and not considering that succubi are lesser paragons of CE. The flavor don't mesh.

I'd honestly swap out the wight for something more relevant. Bodaks for instance would fit rather well, especially given that mortals dying in certain layers and regions of the Abyss tend to get turned into Bodaks anyway. Otherwise some other appropriate form of non-Lawful undead would work, or just using wights that aren't LE would solve the glaring alignment wonkiness.

 

[frankthedm]

My idea was along the lines of a married fighter, some sort of military leader, noble born perhaps was being courted by the succubus hiding her true nature. She providing him information on his foes while getting him to warm up to her. Usually a loyal man, he had rejected the succubus’s advances, but would not send her away for her talents as a spy were too valuable. He suspected something, for a spy to work for free seemed too good to be true but as victories came to him without drawback, his pride swelled he believed she simply felt challenged by her carnal advances being turned down, as had been the circumstance of their first meeting.

In reality the succubus spy was ensuring his victories to destabilize many key areas of a region. She had managed to goad him on a path of victories that would leave areas ripe for demonic influence, allowed her to kill a group of four children who had been prophesized to become great heroes and made sure the fighter was away from his family for a good amount of time. For she was old and powerful and had great pride of her own. No one had turned down her advances in some time. She knew she could overpower him physically or magically, but she wanted the challenge of actually seducing the man.

Eventually his resolve wore away and she won, the details there of can be made up by those who use the idea. Afterwards she saw to it several casks of Dwarven wine and spirits were presented to the troops. Afterward she flew off to bask in the glow of her personal victory.

His soulless husk awoke the next night hungry for life force. He first snuck into the tent with the wounded. As his claws drank their ebbing life force, he gained strength. Soon many of his units, worn thin already by marching to victory too often and suffering from their first experiences with Dwarven alcohols had been drained and had become wights themselves. Under a vague hunch of betrayal, the Wight lead his troops in pursuit of those who had deserted him.

When he caught up to one of his high ranking generals, the general tried to reason with him, explaining that it seemed the spy was somehow behind this. While it did not save the general, the general’s words did strike home with the Wight commander, making him realize he had a goal of vengence.

Time past and their numbers diminished. Divine intervention nearly decimated the entire band, but the battles had toughened many of their number. The commander’s memories, still hazy from undeaths hunger, caused him to seek out his family.

When he arrived home, he discovered his wife’s journal. Due to those who had escaped their reenlistment into his soulless army, she had received word of his undeath. Her words were grief stricken and made it painfully clear was going to take her own life. As he threw the journal down, her now incorporeal form appeared before him. Her ties to him had kept her in this world. She now follows the band of wights, seeking what pushed her beloved into undeath. She does not know her husband was first seduced. Should she be presented with this knowledge, her allegiance to the band will weaken or disappear.

 

[frankthedm]

Maybe its just me, but I find it rather warped to have the victims of a succubi's energy drain rise as undead that are typically... LE. Sounds more like an unintended side effect of having energy drain victims rise as wights, and not considering that succubi are lesser paragons of CE. The flavor don't mesh.

It is not the succubus bringing the person back. When she slurps up his life force, the nature of the energy drain, thus the negative material plane is what provides whatever makes a wight a wight.

Otherwise some other appropriate form of non-Lawful undead would work, or just using wights that aren't LE would solve the glaring alignment wonkiness.

I say the soul slurping sluts don't need to make allies with thier energy drains. I like the idea succubi have to render a corpse non functional after draining it to prevent creating an undying foe.

 

[Shemeska]

It is not the succubus bringing the person back. When she slurps up his life force, the nature of the energy drain, thus the negative material plane is what provides whatever makes a wight a wight.

Except that negative energy has no intrinsic alignment, and in this case it's being used by a chaotic evil fiend to kill its victim. That LE seems to be springing out of nowhere without a real justification.