Café de Nuit

Well, it would make a lousy conclusion to the adventure to have Azalin blow his top and kill the adventurers whose intrepidity had just restored him to "life" and his throne...regardless of how much more realistic it would have been.

...of course, you then have to balance that with what common sense is saying.

"If you've just returned a lich lord to his throne and his full powers, no matter how powerful you are, you don't want to tick him off."

Nathan of the FoS wrote:Well, it would make a lousy conclusion to the adventure to have Azalin blow his top and kill the adventurers whose intrepidity had just restored him to "life" and his throne...regardless of how much more realistic it would have been.

Also, while Azalin's got a nasty temper, I think he might consider it a loss of face (metaphorically speaking) to react to the adventurers' obvious attempts to goad him. Not when he can loftily ignore them-- and then close the borders a little later (I'm assuming he gets all his powers back right away).

alhoon wrote:The moment Azalin rises he closes the borders. A few minutes later it is in all the adventurers best interests to teleport out of Darkon and never return...

Mangrum wrote:

LouisVendredi wrote:If I'm not mistaken, teleport will not allow someone to cross a closed border. I think it takes a Plane Shift or similar spell.

No mortal magic can provide transport across a closed domain border.

That is why I said a few minutes later . So that the borders are open again and they can jump away.

Brandi wrote: Also, while Azalin's got a nasty temper, I think he might consider it a loss of face (metaphorically speaking) to react to the adventurers' obvious attempts to goad him.

Then again, there's a difference between somebody being impotently mocking and somebody displaying full-blown insubordination.

From the sounds of it, the PC group more or less verbally PWNZ0r'd Azalin to his face. Suffice it to say, that wouldn't happen in my campaign without some serious violent combat payback.

Thanks for all that, John!

But can someone tell me anything about Baron Balitor and Oldar Wahldrun? I didn't read King of the Dead.

They appear in King of the Dead and Lord of the Necropolis as citizens of Il Aluk who aid Azalin. I believe the first time you see them (chronologically) is when Azalin is split into Firan and Darcalus when he first enters Darkon. They help Firan get to Avernus. When he becomes Azalin once again, he kills a few nobles and lets the rest go free. Oldar and Balitor are among their number.

In LotN, he calls upon their aid again, several centuries later. He acts mostly through their descendants.

Rather like Strahd in his own novels, Azalin is distinguished by honorable behavior towards those who serve him well.

Basically, when Azalin first set foot on Darkon's soil, the DPs split him into two beings: a living wizard (Firan) and a lich (Darcalus), each with no memory of his true life. Firan-the-wizard set out to destroy Darcalus, and was assisted on his journey by a couple of Darkonese commoners.

Upon arriving at Darcalus's tower, Firan prepared to attack the "evil lich", only to merge with his alter-ego and recover his true memory instead. In an honorable gesture, he disguised himself as Firan and granted his two traveling companions one boon each. One of them -- Balitor -- was given a title and lands, as well as magical protection against aging, so he's still around at the time of the Requiem. The other -- Oldar -- asked only to return safely to his farm and live in peace, so Azalin granted him and his descendents a permanent exemption from baronial abuse; presumably, Oldar Wahldrun is one of those descendents.

Rotipher wrote:Basically, when Azalin first set foot on Darkon's soil, the DPs split him into two beings: a living wizard (Firan) and a lich (Darcalus), each with no memory of his true life. Firan-the-wizard set out to destroy Darcalus, and was assisted on his journey by a couple of Darkonese commoners.

Something funky I noticed when rereading Gaz 2 a while back. It describes Darcalus as a 'mirror image' of Azalin. If you take the length of Darcalus reign--which ends when Azalin's starts--and add it to the starting year of Azalin's . . .

. . . you end at 775.



Matthew L. Martin, Demi-Kargatane

Mangrum wrote:...As the PC who killed Valana is being knighted, he or she should be reminded of Valana’s final prophecies. Azalin Rex is the King of Death, who would destroy the Land of Mists for the sake of a single soul — and it is the heroes who have unleashed him upon the world.

And I'm assuming that "single soul" is that of his son Irik? I think that says a lot about Azalin as a parent: even after trying so hard to toughen up Irik and failing, even after having to kill Irik for the good of Azal'Lan's kingdom, even after having to deal with Irik's incessant attempts to convert Azalin to the light... Even after all of that, Azalin still hasn't given up on his fatherly duties and is still trying to raise his son into the man Azalin believes Irik should be. I think that says a lot about Azalin's personality. His son has been a failure to him for several centuries now, not to mention that his son has been *dead* for several centuries, but Azalin has still not given up on his fatherly responsibility. Evil, but *lawful.*

Anyway, random question: I'm assuming that the soul focus would be found in the Black Vault under the ruins of the Grim Fastness?

Anyway, random question: I'm assuming that the soul focus would be found in the Black Vault under the ruins of the Grim Fastness?

If that's the case, it leaves us in a meta-adventure situation that's too ironically bittersweet for me to pass up.

Namely, that the "never-released adventure to save Azalin" relies on the foundation of another stillborn adventure... namely, the "never-released adventure where Van Richten leads a load of heroes to destroy the treasure trove beneath the Grim Fastness".

(This adventure is mentioned in coy, half-naked, teasing details in the Forged of Darkness supplement, and possibly in some of the VRG series.)

The subtextual juxtaposition in the dialogical reificate inherent in such a metanarrative frame is so peripetaeic that it makes me want to wet my pants, wipe it on the walls, and run through the Illhausen sanitarium with my hands in the air gibbering like a lunatic.

*Gibber!*

In Death Undaunted, Azalin conceives of the soul focus while dispersed (it's essentially just an extension of the fundamental properties of his phylactery). This takes him years, and it takes him additional months to pass on instructions on its construction to the reincarnated Oldar Wahldrun (see Lord of the Necropolis), who is unusually open to Azalin's visions. of course, Oldar and Balitor don't have the skills or resources to create the soul focus themselves, so they take the job to Tavelia, whom Balitor knows through his days in the inner circle. They try to hoodwink Tavelia by withholding the true uses and purpose of the magic item they've ordered, but in the course of crafting the soul focus she sees through their trick, figures out what the device is actually capable of, and creates a second, false soul focus as well, which operates at half power -- restoring half of the subject's life force, while keeping the other half contained.

Well, my take on the matter was that Azalin fully expected a confrontation with them from the beginning. They are after all heroes and witch hunters. Azalin is a Lich, do you honestly think he recruited them expecting them to supply hearts and candy?

He's well aware they hate him and they'd be feel both used and unclean restoring him to his throne.

If Azalin wanted someone loyal and talented he wouldn't choose witch-hunters pledged to cleanse the land of all evil, he'd choose one of his Kargat agents to aid in his restoration. He chooses the PCs because they're pure of heart and unflinching in the face of evil.

Frankly, at their level (and having defeated Azalin in the Grand Conjunction, lost to him in Death Undaunted) it was better for Azalin to withdraw and call it a draw. He would have been destroyed in a direct confrontation and knew they were willing to withdraw. Closing the borders would also mean that he'd simply make a powerful new set of enemies.

PCs are unflinching, tireless, fearless, and unconquerable foes of evil or there's no contrast with the average peasant.

Then again, I tend to play Ravenloft like Castlevania. If the PCs killed Azalin and destroyed his psyclantry, then the entire moral ambiguity of the adventure would have been lost.

(I don't automatically assume that PCs lose in my game as mine are smart enough that they play through the House of Strahd and beat it)

Rose was dead right. Azalin is a force of darkness more than light and it's inevitable that eventually they WILL have to kill him or he them (or Azalin out live them)

Mangrum wrote:In Death Undaunted, Azalin conceives of the soul focus while dispersed (it's essentially just an extension of the fundamental properties of his phylactery). This takes him years, and it takes him additional months to pass on instructions on its construction to the reincarnated Oldar Wahldrun (see Lord of the Necropolis), who is unusually open to Azalin's visions. of course, Oldar and Balitor don't have the skills or resources to create the soul focus themselves, so they take the job to Tavelia, whom Balitor knows through his days in the inner circle. They try to hoodwink Tavelia by withholding the true uses and purpose of the magic item they've ordered, but in the course of crafting the soul focus she sees through their trick, figures out what the device is actually capable of, and creates a second, false soul focus as well, which operates at half power -- restoring half of the subject's life force, while keeping the other half contained.

If Tavelia was planning on using the false Soul Focus from the start, then why did she create a real one as well?

Wouldn't it be easier for her to pass the fake one as the real thing instead of switching them on the spot?

Alanik Ray wrote:If Tavelia was planning on using the false Soul Focus from the start, then why did she create a real one as well?

Mangrum wrote:but in the course of crafting the soul focus she sees through their trick

Alanik Ray wrote:Wouldn't it be easier for her to pass the fake one as the real thing instead of switching them on the spot?

Who said she hands over either of them?