Defenders of Daybreak

"How exciting to see you all again," it says in a voice like the rustling of beetles. "Although I wish it weren't under these circumstances." It briefly flips its head upwards, trying to reseat the dangling eye back in the socket, and then looks around at the crowd as it continues to smile as if at a private joke.

"Oh, no, not as such," answers the ghoul, its voice rattling dryly. "But I've been aware of you for quite some time. Studied up. Seen you fight." It wrinkles its rotting nose in a gesture that would be cute if done by a ten year old girl. "You're quite good at fighting, I'd say."

"Those glowing eye-things at the battle in Hundle's Crossing," whispers Tao mentally over the group's mind link. "This ghoul must have been spying on us through that entire battle -- and this one, as well!"

"So you're here to taunt us before you kill us?" Nolin waves his hand derisively, preparing to repeat his standard 'take a number and get in line' repartee. The ghoul looks shocked, and has to suck in his lolling tongue before he can reply.

"Taunt you? Oh no, quite the reverse. I want to be friends with you." Nolin is actually stopped in mid-retort. The ghoul looks around the dank cavern. "This is a parley, and I'm trying to avoid a war. You can't really like it down here, but we like it just fine. This is our home. I am hopeful that we can find terms that will allow you to return home without regrets."

Mara breaks in. "This isn't your home. This is Dwarven territory. You survive by consuming other races." The ghoul shrugs what's left of his shoulders.

"And you eat cows." He looks concerned for a minute. "You do eat cows, don't you? It's been quite some time for me. Like any predator, we cull out the weak and let the strong survive. Then perhaps the weak choose to join us, and they too become strong. It's the cycle of life." He grins horribly at his own joke. "Well, cycle of something," and his laughter burbles wetly.

Malachite, standing stock still with his hand on Karthos, notices an odd reference. "Chooses to join you?" he growls questioningly.

The red-eyed ghoul nods, his eyeball flopping out as he does. "Oh, yes. You think true ghoulism is a . . . a disease, or a curse?" He laughs again, horribly. "Oh, no. Not with the blessings of the Ivory Queen. It's a religion, and it is a choice. When a creature is killed, it can choose death and judgment from the hand of Boros, or it can choose . . . more. More power. More feasting. More joy. I think you'd be surprised how many people realize at the last minute that they have a golden opportunity to ascend. You people see only the outer corruption, that of the flesh." He gestures down at the rotting orcish body. "Inside, where it counts, we are transcendent fire. For us, the eating of flesh is not a hunger so much as it is a sacrament. It's a celebration of our Goddess, and it is an honor. Following the Prophecy is not hard for those who join us."

The ghoul shrugs. "It's still true. You believing it or not doesn't change anything." It smiles grotesquely, its tongue sliding out in a cascade of bloody spittle.

Wincing, Velendo changes the subject. "So you think you can convince us to turn around?" he says disbelievingly.

"Well, I can try . . . Velendo, is it?" The ghoul doesn't offer to shake hands, although it does bow in a courtly manner. Once again, out plops the eye. "I am Kellharin. And yes, I can try. What is it you want? I have access to the magic and treasures of a dozen civilizations. Enchantments beyond measure, riches for life, exotic drugs and long-lost knowledge. It's not much, but it is ours, and we're not beyond sharing." The ghoul coughs up a few squirming worms as its fingers try to reseat the errant eyeball.

"It's why we advance now," says Kellharin softly in a rustling voice. "We have seen omens. Two years from now the Destroyer will be born to one of your human women. He or she will savage the planet, and nothing will be left by the time they finish -- no ghouls, no people, no plants, nothing. Spira will be wiped clean, and we'd just as soon not allow that to happen. We will reach the surface, and we will clean it ourselves, and thus we prevent the Prophecy." He shakes his head slowly. "Better to let creatures exist in the glory of undeath than allow everything to perish." He looks up, hopeful. "If you wished, you could each designate a city, and we will spare it -- other than the children, of course."

"A whole city, huh?" asks Velendo in a voice heavy with irony. "I don't think so. But maybe we could reach some agreement. Give us the text of this Prophecy of yours, and we'll see what we can do. We can track the child down ourselves."

Kellharin frowns. "You are not of the Faith. Besides, are you telling me that if I give you the Prophecy, you will cease your destruction of our faithful?" Velendo begins to waffle, but Malachite cuts him off.

Kellharin turns to him. "Fanatic." He grins. "Then I suppose that's that, eh? I can't pay you to stop, and you have stated that you won't stop. Then be warned that we have no reason to leave you alive and in our Kingdom. We are at war."

Galthia chuckles mirthlessly. "What's to stop us from destroying you right now where you stand?" Kellharin looks at him as if he were an imbecilic child.

"You would destroy my flesh, not me." He sucks in a deep breath of air that rattles dryly inside of his frame. "There really isn't any reason for our conflict other than your own stubbornness. Let me know if you change your mind. I'll be seeing you." The red light fades from his eyes, and suddenly the orcish ghoul shudders and leaps at Mara. The paladin destroys it on nothing more than a reflex.

KidCthulhu:

"It briefly flips its head upwards, trying to reseat the dangling eye back in the socket, and then looks around at the crowd as it continues to smile as if at a private joke."

Kind of like a bizarre game of cup and ball. Eeew.

He did do this voice for the entire game, but he has a pretty high tolerance for scratchy voices.

And as for the prophecy, I think it's entirely possible that they may be right. But I for one, resent their cheap attempts at trying to distract us with shinier evil. I'm an adventurer, and I want it all. I want to wipe out the white kingdom AND save the world. And I want a cherry on it.

Quasqueton:

Sorry for the disjointing rambling questions below, but I'm short on time and long on questions right now.

Piratecat, how "big" and important would you say the Defenders are in your world, right now? Considering the overall grand scheme of things.

They seem to be very major players in Eversink (I've read since the Dockside Royals stuff), but how about elsewhere? Are they in the top 1% of most powerful in your world?

How unusual (in your world) are things like a bard with flames for hair and a walking saint?

Are Mara and Malachite, and the others within some kind of hierarchy, more powerful (personally) than those who are considered their superiors?

How high in level and power can the Defenders grow before they reach the "top of the food chain"?

And if your world has enough super-powerful foes to keep the Defenders busy, how were these foes kept in check before the Defenders?

For instance, take the Dockside Royals: so many high-level (I'm guessing they were all somewhere around 10th) pirates on one ship/organization -- what prevented them from totally ruling the seas?

One problem I've seen with many campaigns that make it to really high levels (15+) is that the whole campaign world has to start bumping up in power to make sense for high-level PCs and enemies to be supported. [Suddenly grunt guards are 5th, 10th, 15th level fighters with templates instead of 1st or 2nd level warriors.] How have you balanced the increasing PC levels without increasing the overall power level of the whole world? (I'm presuming you have balanced this.)

Thanks very much for a great story hour. And thanks in advance for any answers you can give me (us?).

Piratecat:

Superb questions. Let's take them one at a time.

> how "big" and important would you say the Defenders are in your world, right now? > Considering the overall grand scheme of things.

Hmmm. Depends where you're using as a point of reference. In their home kingdom of Gaunt (a homey, backwater of a place), they're in the top .5%. In Eversink or Oursk (my answer to Waterdeep), they're in the top 5% in terms of fighting power, but less in terms of political power. In Sigil, the extraplanar city, they're in the top 10%. And if you look at the world overall, I'd say you hit it pretty closely with the 1% guess.

Mind you, this doesn't mean that in Eversink 1 out of 20 people they meet will be more powerful than they are - far from it. I'm just using those numbers to indicate relative buffitude as compared to the movers and shakers of the areas they're in.

And that's really a good measuring stick. The Defenders could probably walk into most cities nowadays and kill many (if not all) of their powerful defenders. It would ruin their reputation, but they could do it. Only the big cities and the little towns that attract "talent" for some reason could withstand them if they felt like flexing their muscles in a fight. I've never been a big fan of raising guard levels to match PC levels; grunt guards are still 1st lvl. In fact, many of the "bad guys" in Eversink (such as Lord Griggan Clearwater) are low level aristocrats. They've just got political power and hefty friends... and really, what else do you need?

> How unusual (in your world) are things like a bard with flames for hair and a walking saint?

Extremely. I mean, they've never met another one!

Seriously, for a long time one of my weaknesses was not showing the group other adventuring groups, both allied and opposed. I think I've gotten a little better at that. For instance, Stavros (their half-orc bartender friend back home) now makes his living financing and sponsoring young heroes. Neat, huh?

This story hour (and the campaign) tends to focus on the heroes, though. The proportional amount of other (mostly low-level) adventurers are out there, even if they don't always see them directly.

> Are Mara and Malachite, and the others within some kind of hierarchy, more powerful (personally) > than those who are considered their superiors?

Depends. In Mara and Malachite's case, generally yes; most of their superiors in the church have less combat power. In Raevynn's case with the druidic council, generally no. In TomTom's case (he trains the psionic secret police in Gaunt), absolutely yes.

> How high in level and power can the Defenders grow before they reach the "top of the food chain"?

Discovering this will partially determine the longevity of the campaign. Their current adventures in a very dangerous underdark allows me to pull out a lot of the stops in terms of monster power, even though I'm still using primarily low-powered undead to threaten them. If they survive and make it back home, they'll have to see where they fit in. I think personally that when I begin to feel like I'm pulling improbable NPCs out of my butt, it will be time to wind down. I'm not there yet! It's plenty exciting and dangerous, and I think it's still both fun and interesting. My players can answer that better than I can, though.

> And if your world has enough super-powerful foes to keep the Defenders busy, how were these foes kept in check before the Defenders?

In the case of the White Kingdom, they haven't been kept in check since the mindflayer city that was blocking their progress got destroyed. But that's a bad example. *grin*

> For instance, take the Dockside Royals: so many high-level (I'm guessing they were all somewhere around 10th) > pirates on one ship/organization -- what prevented them from totally ruling the seas?

I always try to give some thought to a bad guy's psychology. If they're the "rule the seas" type, you can be sure that they're out there struggling to rule. If you're the Dockside Royals type (carefully recruited lackeys who like to follow a strong leader), then you can be sure that they're happy following - and if there's one of them that's NOT happy following, then I'll try to work that into the plot as they explore selling out to the PCs.

In the Royals' case, they were hired to break bones and keep the machinery humming down on the docks. It was a fun job; good pay, cushy work, local fame and fear (if not respect), and the occasional extra mercenary job for pay. When they had that, they had no interest in ruling the seas. Some of them had tried that before; as it turns out, it involves a lot of sea sickness and salt pork. Bleah.

> How have you balanced the increasing PC levels without increasing the overall power level of the whole world?

Primarily by changing the nature of the challenges, rather than the specific challenges themselves. Angry or bullying guards are no longer a problem, although they give the PCs a very fun chance to show off. Dealing with the noble that the guards are working for - and his evil court wizard, and his shadowy compatriots in an elaborate blackmail scheme that the PCs might now threaten - may be more of an appropriate challenge.

Remember, events that challenge the players (puzzles, tricky tactics, politics, sneaky conundrums, obscure clues) are level-independent.

I hope that helps. If not, let me know!

Jobu:

PC mentioned several months ago that he would be considering ending the Defenders in another year to year and a half. So naturally I started thinking of what character I would start after playing Tao for ten years.

Then it dawned on me, I'm not done with where I want Tao to be. She still has so much growing to do as a character. She is just gotten over being left at the alter, not that she'll tell Dilly that.

We as Defenders are lucky because I don't think there are many DM's that could keep a game this exciting and new after this many years and with this much Firepower.

Just last game he scared all of us when he [deleted] and then Velendo had to say"[deleted]" which saved our butts. Just in time to get us back to [deleted].

So you see, it is still a great time whenever we get together and game. And though we might not say it cause we're busy cursing his name PC is an amazing DM (so stop giving him any more ideas - Sialia).

Piratecat:

Well, I'm not done with the story hour, but that's because we just finished a great game starring Lord Nightshade as Agar! That makes the Agar count...

James Garr (Gargoyle)
DoctorB
Mike Selinker (WotC author)
Dr. Rictus
Bandeeto
Wulf Ratbane
Lord Nightshade
Inconsequent-AL (with Morrus as Splinder the dwarf)

He's communal!