DM HackMaster

[Hackmaster]

THE RED PLAGUE

BACK HISTORY
A plague rumored to be of Myrkul's design or his followers long ago infected a small coastal fishing village on the Wyvernwater. The plague did subside eventually from turning the living into feral undead but left a horrible red mist scar that still cloaks the area to this day. Cormyr essentially quarantined the area not allowing access to the area accept for a select few groups.

Though the the undeath it created has faded away those animals and living beings that live in the area over a period of years end up becoming insane viewing those that pass through as undead or any other number of odd delusions. So generally nobody is allowed to live in the area though a few bandits and other desperate groups have set up in it's protective fog making the place terribly dangerous for travelers even to pass through.

Eventually the road through it was closed and a road was built to skirt around the area with many miles to spare to keep it's distance. The cursed land never was able to be cleansed even by the most brilliant and powerful minds over the past 100 years. Many have perished trying to or gone insane themselves despite good intentions.

CURRENT TROUBLES

Recently a man has come down with the same symptoms of the red plague of a hundred years ago but has strangely not died...the fog has not spread, and the living have been quickly cured, having figured out the cure if caught soon enough. The problem is the man with the disease seems incurable and has been essentially locked into a old abandoned secret place in an attempt to protect both him and the population in general while a desperate search for the cure is looked for. Until then all of Cormyr is in grave danger.

Will the cure be found? At what cost? The inflicted man is a danger to all and could be used as a weapon by some who see it as a benefit to their own cause. For now...the man lays safely in the hands of the forces of light...but for how long?

WHO IS THIS PLOT MEANT FOR?
This plot is meant for anyone and everyone that wishes to try and get involved no matter the alignment, levels or motivations. Will you save Cormyr, attempt to destroy it, or maybe even profit from it? You decide.

[Hackmaster]

UPDATED

[arisnorman1]

hey can we arange some event or to make aris leave being a BG n lose the bg lvls and gain them as fighter?

[dmthann]

Mar 7, 2011 18:13:08 GMT -5 arisnorman1 said:

hey can we arange some event or to make aris leave being a BG n lose the bg lvls and gain them as fighter?

[Hackmaster]

The Rise of Necromancy!

BACK HISTORY
The Red plague from several years ago has returned to the shores of Cormyr but this time it carries with it undead in the mists. Originally the plague was designed by followers of Myrkul. It was so potent, almost anyone who even entered the red mists that came, would soon die and become the walking dead themselves. Few were brave enough to test their resolve against this plague and walk into the mists willingly.

With Myrkul's death and his powers waned in large part, the mists became weak, people no longer died directly and the only way you could become infected was to meet an untimely death within the mists. Slowly the desperate entered the mists to find out what loot they could find untouched or to escape their superstitious pursuers. Velsharoon noticed it's works and sent his own undead followers there to see what they could do with it's waning power.

While what they did is known only between Velsharoon and his most powerful of followers, they managed to somewhat revive the deadly magic though still in a weaker form. While it cannot kill people for breathing it in, it carries a curse for mortals. It cann effect people and animals differently, and some even not at all but one never knows. It takes much time for the curse to take full effect, sometimes years of being in the mists and over time, leaving the mists sets a mind straight again though once the curse finally takes hold, there is little can be done short of a wish spell to reverse this process. The added effect is as if the mists have a mind of its own, it can move a few miles inland from shore along any water way. The undead have seemed to learn how to harness this power and use it to full advantage.

The constant struggle to remove this taint has failed while the undead have been kept in check unable to travel far with the mists. Worse still, it only will turn others into undead if the undead manage to kill the living while within it. While this seems easy enough, they have found often they don't gain many to their ranks doing so as usually somebody is there to put down as many as they take in. Given time, the mists actually seem to be able to regenerate the undead that have fallen, sometimes in mere minutes, other times days. It appears to be random.

Due to the heat of the day, if it is sunny and warm the mists seem to be defeated by such and burn off, the range becomes so limited it can only exist on the water. It's at night or on an over cast day the mists can move onto land with night being a time it can mover the furthest inland even enveloping the large coastal cities. While reports of it occasionally moving are rare, recently the mists have moved onto Cormyr's shores and undead have poured forth like a plague zombie apocalypse. Brave adventurers have helped the Cormyrian citizens and army stem the tide in the undeads attempts to test the defenses and not allow the undead army gain numbers thus far but the undead are cunning, they have begun hitting smaller unguarded places including taking merchant ships on the sea. The already sizable army that can take on nations as it is, has been growing slowly. Cormyr has it's work cut out for it this time and for the first time in a long time, they grow nervous.

CURRENT TROUBLES

One night an envoy comes walking out of the carefully watched mists that sometime roll out onto Cormyr's shore on the Wyvern water whereas usually the mist would rarely move only covering a couple square miles if it entered the Wyvernwater at all. Fabled to actually exist somewhere out on the Sea of Fallen Stars, no mortal has ever been able to navigate the mists and live. All those that navigate it successfully are Ferrymen navigators that without them, not even the dead can find their way into or out of the mists.

The undead diplomats were cut down quickly by Purple Dragons who just looked at them as undead. The second time, a small skirmishing force landed on the shore and quickly over ran the small watch post the Purple Dragons had to keep a watchful eye on their occasional tainted piece of shoreline and headed south towards Immersea where they made probing attacks to test the cities defenses. After giving Immersea quite a surprise and then marching away after nearly a hundred casualties, losing a similar number themselves, though some got up and rejoined the undead ranks.

Great Gaunt also suffered three attacks of which only two were certain came from the undead army. Immersea suffered a heavier hit some time later on a new probing attack testing the city now that it was alert and prepared. Once again Immersea lost many dozens even prepared however the attacking army had the burden of breaching the defenses and lost several hundred before seemingly satisfied with the skirmish probe, marched away having not even scratched the overall size of the army while the Immersea battle fatigued defenders watched relieved. Realizing the undead did not get battle fatigued, needed no sustenance, and had the numbers, it slowly dawned on the defenders even with burning dead bodies from both sides or resurrecting them before the dead defenders turned, they felt a sense of doom and that in a drawn out war, attrition may be Cormyr's end.

Even Suzail docks underwent an attack from the Undead navy fleet that taxed the defenders heavily. Since that time the most recent attack came to GreatGaunt. The defenders made one mistake that ended disastrously. The undead sent a diplomat in to negotiate and the defenders attempted to assassinate the diplomat as a show of defiance. The failed attempt resulted in the diplomats escape and the Undead army was commanded to take the insolent town, crushing it easily with superior strength and numbers.

The resulting occupation closed the gates for a full day while they secured their position but soon, the undead opened the gates back up declaring it a outpost of trade while they attempted negotiations with Cormyr and the enclave. Their one warning was for the Purple Dragon's or the militia to attack the outpost or that they would take a city. With that they opened the gates for free trade and allowed people to come and go as they wished. Days into the occupation a militia group formulated an ill conceived plan to "free" the children who were already technically free to leave with their families. Many families were told by the undead they would leave on their own accord in the next week or so after their negotiations were ended, being able to keep their lives, businesses, and families altogether. For this reason many chose to stay and wait it out.

Impatient militia hating the undead too much wished to strike a blow against the occupying Garrison. The open gates and guards paying attention to what was on the outside of the gates coming in and not what was leaving found themselves unprepared for the surprise attack as militia sprang into action destroying undead guards on the way out as villagers made their way in and out of the village. Followed closely behind was the children. As it turned out the undead learned of the attack and through interrogation of the trapped adventurers, a man admitted himself the ring leader.

Unsure of the truth, the undead decided secretly evacuating the town of villagers was a precursor for an attack and decided the village was not worth holding against a possible hostile army attack. They organized and marched East to the Dragonmere through the wilderness areas. The Purple Dragons had a legion moving along the south road from Valkur's Roar to Great Gaunt found the village empty of occupiers when they arrived. The town retaken, the commanders took the news to the crown and the threats that a city would fall for the attack upon them during their attempts to spark talks.

WHO IS THIS PLOT MEANT FOR?
This plot is meant for anyone and everyone that wishes to try and get involved no matter the alignment, levels or motivations. Will you save Cormyr, attempt to destroy it, or maybe even profit from it? You decide.

[Hackmaster]

Hey all, sorry for the pause on all this, giving a little update. The reason this has stalled for a bit is my video card has been slowly dying and is very fickle. Games often crash the computer at this point and web surfing is about all she can handle until I get a new one. So I apologize for the lack of story progression and will start back just as soon as possible.

[DM Maleficent's Kiss]

Did you clean the dust out? Nine out of ten times I have frame rate loss or game crashes is when my card(s) get to hot from dust buildup. If you haven't looked yet I would start there.

[Hackmaster]

Oh yeah, I clean it out regularly with canned air every couple of weeks, I wish that was all that it was. heh