Brainstorming: Cult of Undeath Front #1: The Murder of Alpon von Lechfeld

The Cult of Undeath 5x5 front has the five fronts identified at very high level. Let me brainstorm some points about the first front, which is the main Cult of Undeath front.

Alpon von Lechfeld has died, leaving his 17 year old daughter (Revecca) orphaned. The PCs have been called to be pallbearers or something, and eventually start to suspect foul play. This set-up is based on the earliest Carrion Crown set up, although very little after that will resemble that anymore. Although I might want to have some kind of haunted house scenario like Carrion Crown does. In fact, I very specifically do want to, and I want to use the haunts rules, and maybe a ghost or two, which will feel pretty different than anything that happened in Shadows Over Garenport. What’s going on here? What does the cult want and what are they doing? Von Lechfeld in his work is a paranormal researcher has acquired many unusual things, and he was murdered because some thugs from the Cult of Undeath (a better name might be nice, but whatever) came looking for one of them, after tracing it to him through one of his old dealers. These weren’t just brutish thugs, however; he was murdered in such a way that it looked like an accident.

Von Lechfeld right before his murder

These guys are now using this item to stir up spectral activity in Cockrill’s Hill, where von Lechfeld lived. I’ll continue the first half of the first adventure of Carrion Crown and assume that the town is getting riled up. Then there will be some ghosts to put down in the graveyard, or in a haunted area of some kind. Again, this is a very different kind of activity than the PCs will have done in the previous campaign, which makes it nice. 

But let’s now take the old Carrion Crown activity and flip it; instead of talking about what the PCs are “supposed” to do, let’s figure out who the villains are and what they’re doing? Bartal Roziak and Francor Torsail are the thugs, but they have a decent necromancer, Loriana Boztogonash among their number. This necromancer actually killed von Lechfeld’s dealer and friend Werner Otten in Mittermarkt first, and then got the answer for where the object was that he was looking for. What is this object, actually? I don’t know what I’ll call it, but basically it’s a necromancy amplifier, which the cult leader, Konstantin Hmayak from his hideout in the Eltdown Fens is looking for. He wants to use it to call up the dead gods of the Atlanteans, one of which, Bokrug, is a lizard-like beast said to have died in the swamp eons ago when it was wetter, and a much larger lake. Hmayak doesn’t really understand that he’s getting in over his head, but that’s OK. Evil doesn’t have to always be competent to be a threat. Look at our managerial globalist elite, for example. 

Roziak and Torsail

Boztogonash

To understand what’s happening, it will be necessary to follow up with the ghosts that are haunting Cockrill’s Hill, as well as investigate Otten and his murder. However, Otten has had body parts stolen and constructed into a zombie slash flesh golem slash Frankenstein’s monster which is running amok and causing panic in town; you can’t be in Mittermarkt and not be involved in some way. This monster will have to be stopped to find the clues about von Lechfeld’s murder, which will require some exploration of the city and the surrounding countryside, which will be further developed later (this is still a rough skeleton draft.) I have some stuff from my original Cult of Undeath outline that I could think about adapting or updating to make it fit.

Otten as flesh golem 

Another slightly less supernatural threat will be the Tarushan gypsies around Mittermarkt, who have been kidnapping people and feeding them to an undead nightmare among them who is on its way towards trying to become a vampire. I’ll probably treat it like Alys, my wight-witch, by which I mean it’ll be a wight but I’ll add a few spells that he can cast. Unlike Alys, this guy will be more savage and feral, and the day to day threat will be the sneaky no-good gypsies themselves, although it’ll end in a confrontation with the wight.

It turns out that Boztogonash made a mistake in killing von Lechfeld to get his object; he’s attuned it to himself, and nobody else can use it… except for Revecca, his daughter, and only heir of his bloodline. So, she’ll get kidnapped and dragged across the Haunted Forest in a shortcut to Eltdown and the Fens. However, the necromancy amplifier, which has been kinda sorta turned on by Boztogonash but which is out of control not only caused the rash of haunting and ghosts in Cockrill’s Hill, but has riled up the forest, making it more dangerous than ever, and has also caused the spontaneous reanimation of the swamp shamblers, ancient Atlantean bodies buried in the bogs and fens; ancestors of the Wendaks who died during the fall of Atlantis itself. 

Grendling woman

Speaking of, Wendaks in the Haunted Forest! What an obvious line of the front. Their own restless spirits and monsters are disturbed by the passage of Boztogonash and the necromancy amplifier, causing the Grendlings to go a little crazy and violent on their own. Luckily, much of this can be avoided if the PCs fail to pass through the forest, but not entirely; even going around it will get some of the impact of this.

Finally, main villain, Hmayak will attempt to resurrect or reanimate or whatever Bokrug. He’ll be a crazy swampie sorcerer, he’ll be protected somewhat inadvertently by the swamp shamblers and cultists. This could also get pretty hairy, because I have two other fronts on this 5x5 that are also based in the same Eltdown Fens; there might be more villainy going on than the PCs can possibly imagine. But, I like the idea of the Bokrug cult, the Heqet snake cult and the ghouls all interacting with each other in the swamps, and that the PCs can’t really attempt to deal with one of these fronts without getting entangled in the other two. After a very brief foray in the Shadow Realm in the last campaign to find the cure for the ratmen plague and possibly to go visit Jairan Neferirkare, I like the idea that Bokrug himself might need to be slain as a embryonic undead beast in the Shadow Realm too.

Hmayak