Deathlord - The Blinded Spider of Mist Forgotten

[Stormrider Jento]

“…a lost Deathlord will one day rise again and conquer the others, ushering in an even darker age of death under one evil gauntlet before Creation’s inevitable plunge into Oblivion.â€

 

[Hanat-Osul]

First of all, "The Resplendent Magister and Weaver of Glamoured Remorse" = damn good name.  Damn good.


Now, then.


I like a Deathlord who changes (as my comment on the Crow reveal), so I dig the Blinded Spider a little bit just off that.  His physical description is fucking awesome, and I like the idea that his robe has spells auto-keyed to activate when he's in a fight.  I also dig (ha!) the Egyptian stuff - Apep, Ra, a pyramid at the confluence of rivers, etc.


This wants more material: a description of his deathknights? A slightly longer backstory, possibly including details on his pre-Usurpation self? signature weapon a la the other Deathlords (unless that's his robe, in which case you might give it a name)? hints at the terrible nature of the 1,001 steps to appease his new master?

 

[Stormrider Jento]

This wants more material: a description of his deathknights? A slightly longer backstory, possibly including details on his pre-Usurpation self? signature weapon a la the other Deathlords (unless that's his robe, in which case you might give it a name)? hints at the terrible nature of the 1,001 steps to appease his new master?

Thanks for the kind words - I had a lot of fun coming up with him.  And you make good points about needing more material.  The Blinded Spider came into being as a liege for player Abyssals, so I looked at him through that lense, rather than as a potential adversary.  Because of this I didn't list his deathknights (in case someone else wanted to use him for a liege) and wanted him to be mysterious, with the players finding out more about the DL's past and abilities as the campaign carried on.


With that said, I see the DL as a game mechanic more than a literary piece, so I won't get into his history or write the story of his long, slow ascent from Oblivion.  I'll try to fill out more of the nuts and bolts for Solars that might want to take him out, or any other way the DMs might use him.


Area - The Blinded Spider is trying to slowly rebuild his power and influence in the town of Vierna's Lament, where the pyramid is located in the underworld.  The overworld city at the confluence of rivers (NE of Denandsdor, SE of Great Forks, don't have the right book here to be more specific) has become a small town living on the dilapidated ruins of its former greatness.  The city itself is largely underwater, making the channels that might once have been streets the main method of transportation.  No one goes into the dark waters.  


The DL wants the resurgence of the town to occur without anyone guessing he played a hand.  The Deathknights have began public works (stuff like soup kitchens with the food drugged to sap will) so that it seems the city has a great benefactor.  They have also started a small but loyal cult that is providing mortuary services for cash, sort of a local, discount version of Sijan.  The docks are being rebuilt and are seeing much more trade, new gourmet restaurants are being built with ancient ghost chefs whispering first age recipes into the ears of their mortal ancestors, and ruins are being renovated and rebuilt as more and more people move to the city.  Of course, it's all a ploy to grow power and influence, as the Abyssals have their hand in almost every new project.


The Pyramid manse - opens into a huge antechamber or great hall suited best for gala parties.  On the walls are huge flat crystals that look like three-dimensional paintings.  Inside them are fae lords and ladies, who glower at all in the room and move as if alive.  Apep claims that they have been trapped for centuries.  Further in the manse is a sealed archway that leads to several descending stairwells.  The pyramid is exactly as deep as it is tall, the lower pyramid being the source of all the power.  At its anti-apex sits a room with a soulsteel floor with gouged channels that form dark sigils.  The main channels flow from soulsteel sconces in the wall to the huge well of power at the center.  The well is currently capped by sourcery and a soulsteel lid.  Any Exalt standing in the room can feel immense power barely contained within, and it is rumored to link to the same source of energy for the Dowager's well (well of Kuthian?  I'm without books or notes), which begins somewhere deep in the bowels of Creation.  The misty form of the magister rises above this well, when opened, to hold court with his Deathknights.  The one entrance to the labrynth is nearby - a huge wall (several feet thick) of constantly crawling ghost/essence scarab beetles that must be pushed through to pass.  They devour the flesh of any ghost, corpse, or living being not bearing the proper sigil or hearthstone  (I thought I came up with this idea, evidently it's a spell in another game).  The labrynth just outside is fairly stable, appearing as various forms of a stone passageway, at least for a short ways.


Library - there is an ancient and powerful library within the pyramid manse or attached to it, and there are two entrances, once is through a secret and highly trapped (warding glyph sorcery and statues that spring to defense) entrance in the manse.  The other is at the point of the two rivers coming together in creation, and its well-like entrance is submerged in the deadly swamp there and hasn't seen the sun in centuries.  If the PCs can get to this and get its soulsteel lid (yes, there's a theme) opened - which requires the second level sorcery (depending on whether it's a Solar or Abyssal campaign, why penalize one over the other?) - they will never be able to get inside alive.  A glance inside the entrance reveals a swirling ash-like mass of thousands of powerful, ancient ghosts, fueled by hatred and hunger.  Neither human nor ghostly flesh can enter the library.  However, the ghosts can be convinced to bring specific books or books on requested topics, for temporarily sating their hunger.  They require more and more each request.. but a nearly un-paralleled opportunity exists to research dark magics and the first age.


The Deathlord's signature weapon - while his glyph-protected robe will throw defensive or countering spells of various circles if the Blinded Spider attacks, the truly powerful artifact comes in the form of the soulsteel spikes driven into his empty eye sockets.  They provide sight of the oblivion and corruption in all things he surveys, giving him dark hints at first glance of all the weaknesses, vices, and guilt, etc. of every creature he sees.  Should he be stripped of his Deathknights and all other defenses (or <i>really</i> want to emphasize a point) he will rip one of the spikes from his skull, use it as a perfect level thrown artifact (stats similar to Reborn Glacial Rain) with a thrown combo of Abyssal, Solar, and other Exalt types (whether he is Moonshadow/Eclipse or it is a function of the spike, scholars know not), and with his vision of weakness and oblivion it strikes with shattering accuracy.  Those hit who are not destroyed must make a conviction roll (D2) not to instantly limit break as the voices of the Neverborn whisper power and filth to the Exalt.  (non-solars go into uncontrolled hysteria, as every dark and unnatural act they have ever performed comes crashing to mind at once).  Another conviction roll (D2) must be made to remove the spike, once the limit break/hysteria is over.


Sorry this is getting long.  Finally, his DKs, briefly (stats upon request)


Dusk - Winter's Gate (used Sephiroth as a template and character pic) Powerful obsidian armor and a long Soulsteel sword (Daiklave, also adds 1 Aggravated to every sucessful hit with damage) are never far from this young-looking, beautiful boyish faced Deathknight.  He has mastered the Melee defense tree and is well through the others.  He is a skilled at tactics, very athletic, and likes to warn his enemies loudly what a horrible and painful death they are about to endure.  He is dominant and loves feeling that he is in charge.  Winter's Gate is, however, mentally weak and buffonish, and Darkseed and Umbral Cascade (below) vie for who can tie the most puppet strings to him, as he is a powerful piece in their games.  He also commands an elite squadron of 13-ghost warriors, who are headed by the curiously fawning Nephwrack Raziel when Winter's Gate is not around.  She claims to follow him as part of a prophecy she uncovered in the labrynth.


Midnight - Umbral Cascade - slightly built, paralyzingly beatiful Abyssal who began as the shaman for a tribe in the jungles to the southeast.  She wears a head-to-toe dress and veil that is covered in dozens of tinkling moon phase-shaped "Irodani," razor-sharp soulsteel circles and crescents that serve both as throwing instruments and a layer of chain-like armor (defense varies by number still on the dress).  Umbral Cascade is the embodiment of manipulation, using her power, tongue, and beauty when she must to enthrall humans, ghosts, and her fellow Deathknights.  She runs the cult in both the underworld and over, and hosts secret blood orgies in a hidden cave shadowland on a rocky island in the river.  It is rumored that she has somehow ensnared a Solar lover, and it is certain that she has an army of ghosts, including beastmen, at her call.


Daybreak - Deathfire of Mourning Sorrows - A former Sijanese cultist who showed too much promise and ability for her nervous superiors, she was sentenced to a glorius death as a willing pyre sacrifice of 13 young lovelies.  The cult was secretly run by the Blinded Spider, who recognized her promise and gave her the power to direct the flames toward the weak cult leaders in her Exaltation.  As a Deathknight she embodies lust, wearing nothing but a soulsteel reinforced cloak.  She relies on sorcery to attack, and has recently gained access to the DL's soulfourge, with a first-age ghost tutor.


Day - Thousand-Eyes Vulture - little is known of his pre-Exaltation life, but Thousand Eyes is a swift, silent, deadly servant.  A follower by nature, he accepts the counsel of his Deathknight brethren and seems to listen to Winter's Gate above the others.  He dresses in an ash-brown buff jacket and wraps similar material over his face leaving only slits for eyes.  He carries three soulsteel medallions on his hip, and each grant him a different sort of vision - one limited distanance, one 360 degrees at all times, and the other is a mystery.  He is almost constantly followed by two circling vulture Familiars with uncanny wit and ability.  His circlemates don't know that they are the protectors of the mighty and dangerous artifact he carries.  The Cursed Sword of Lai'ant-Xaa causes horrible misfortune to befall those it strikes.  Mechanically, with any successful strike Thousand-Eyes rolls his essence.  Success determine the power and depth of the affect, but basically it removes <i>backgrounds</i> at random.  In game this causes calamity to befall the victim, so that friends stop trusting her, contacts disappear, artifacts break, manses get destroyed or overthrown, etc. (I plan to write this weapon up later)


Moonshadow - Covenant of the Darkseed - a former slave and secret-finder for House Ledaal's interests in the East, he slew his former Dragon-Blooded master and escaped to his new Deathlord master with all of the rumors, stories, and information he had gathered on The MoW, Walker, and the Dowager.  Though Darkseed is hideously and permanently scarred from the battle, he now runs a castle-manse and draws much wealth from a sucessful business trading nefarious goods.  Soulsteel chains wrap most of his body and lash out at enemies - and at the end of the chains is the skull of his former DB master, covered now in spikes and enchanged with dark sorceries that can afflict those hit by the skull with visions of the Abyss and Oblivion.  Darkseed emulates the spider in that he likes to trick others into doing his bidding.  His fleshcrafting and sorcery have grown into an army of zombies, war-ghouls, and recently bone-striders and the like.  He has also been crafting skilled and powerful mindless servants to protect him, as his paranoia convinces him that his circlemates conspire against him for his growing power.  He has much reason to fear.


Ok.  This is long enough.  If you use any of this and would like to know more, let me know.  In the meantime, good gaming!