Meeting Tristessa (Servants of Darkness)

[Joël of the FoS]

IMC, I did make a few changes to the Servants of Darkness adventure.

In the original adventure, the PCs are entering Keening, on the trail after Loht & Lorelei. Many thing do not make sense in this 1) why bring Lorelei? 2) Why would Tristessa discuss with Loht, instead of killing him on sight, as he is the one killing her and her baby?

So I changed it to: Loht forces the PCs to retrieve the sword from Tristessa (he has 5 humans from Viktal hostages), while he stays safely in Tepest. He gave them a human baby he stole in Nova Vaassa, but the PCs decided to give her the Eye of Vhaeraun instead.

The PCs will be on their way to Keening, find Mount Lament's cave, enter it and meet Tristessa.

I do not want it to be a simple trade deal, here's your baby, give us the sword.

Ideas to complicate / spice this trip?

I added:

- on the Tepest part of the trip - a goblyn ambush leading them to Blackroot.
- a pit near the cave entrance on Mt Lament with bones from baby skeletons (where tristessa dump the babies when they die in her arms - idea from Tales of RL novel)
- a spot near the summit, where two old spikes of wood are in the middle of two black shapes, one man sized, one baby sized. This place is the origin of the dark tear-like streaks covering the mountain. Not a good idea to cast Ethereal Resonnance here I guess
- a drider female ghost, the guardian of Tristessa's sanctuary. She let no one pass unless they have a baby (but the PCs will be stuck to fight her as they surely won't show her the Eye of Vhaeraun!)
- they hear Tristessa pityful singing from afar at night or in the caves (mourning her baby mainly, may cause Despair)

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Problem #1: Tristessa is coocoo for cocoa puffs. Discussing anything with her is going to require getting her in a mood to talk at all, first. Rather than, you know, killing everyone and scooping the Eye of Vhaeraun out of the gore. She is not a reasonable individual, and any little thing might set her off.

Problem #2: Widderibbhin (sp?). If they meet the party before they get to Tristessa, they could make any number of attempts to trap / enslave the party and swipe the Eye of Vhaeraun so they can make their queen happy.

Problem #3: The Spider Queen may now be legally distinct from Lloth, demon queen of spiders, but Vhaeraun is Lloth's rebellious son. At your option, bringing an artifact named for him into a temple dedicated to his mum might have any number of unpleasant consequences. Maybe holding the Eye will burn Tristessa's skin, setting her off. The Eye could explode once it enters into the shrine of the Spider Queen.

[alhoon]

I don't have the adventure.
That said... I would agree that portraying Tristessa as someone that can have a discussion instead of a force of nature, and a very deadly one, is at least as far as I think against what Tristessa is. That said... nothing forces you to remain close to the canonical, or what alhoon thinks as canonical, version of Tristessa.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

From Gazetteer V, there's the pit full of baby skeletons.
Stumbling upon it could generate Horror and Madness saves... or it could do something very different if the Eye of Vhaeraun gets close enough, depending on how sentient all those undead babies are.
If they all see the Eye as something they want, they could come surging out of the pit...

[alhoon]

That pit of horrors is nightmare material. It was horrific for me as a reader expecting what it was there. It an absolute O_O moment for the PCs, and I would place it as horror DC 25, easily.

[Joël of the FoS]

From Gazetteer V, there's the pit full of baby skeletons.
Stumbling upon it could generate Horror and Madness saves... or it could do something very different if the Eye of Vhaeraun gets close enough, depending on how sentient all those undead babies are.
If they all see the Eye as something they want, they could come surging out of the pit...

Oh I forgot it was in Gaz 5 too.

I put a haunt in it :

The see bones as well as a few baby jewellry.

Juste before : suddenly the PC's breath freeze when exhaling as if it was very cold.
The haunt is triggered by anyone disturbing bones –
1) first a mental image of two motherly arms that hold you tighter and tighter!
2) When the haunt is triggered, on its initiative count, the haunt appears as the spectral form of a frozen baby swarm trying to get close to you for warmth.
Similar to inflict wounds spell but cold damage. The haunt has a +7 to hit hit and deals 4d6 cold damage on a successful hit. Lasts 1d4 r then stops for 24 hours
The haunt can be permanently pacified by burying the bones in a warm place.

But a horror check would be a good addition to it, seeing it from above the pit.

[Joël of the FoS]

Problem #1: Tristessa is coocoo for cocoa puffs. Discussing anything with her is going to require getting her in a mood to talk at all, first. Rather than, you know, killing everyone and scooping the Eye of Vhaeraun out of the gore. She is not a reasonable individual, and any little thing might set her off.

I don't have the adventure.
That said... I would agree that portraying Tristessa as someone that can have a discussion instead of a force of nature, and a very deadly one, is at least as far as I think against what Tristessa is. That said... nothing forces you to remain close to the canonical, or what alhoon thinks as canonical, version of Tristessa.

Indeed, you have to get her attention first, as when they see her first, she is in her world, always talking about her baby, or similar pityful talk (in elven) or song about her grief or a lullaby for her baby or sobbing and wailing.

So you have to talk her outside of her inner world if you want to interact with her.

Ex. – talk about her motherly interactions with her baby, or the empathy approach (“No mother should endure what you endured.”) or even weep with her.

Effect : The PC got her attention and she becomes almost conversational with that PC for a few rounds.

What NOT to do :
• Any tone of command : instantly triggers an angry wail
• Any mention of death : meltdown + grief wail
• Any mention of the Sword too early : she thinks it's a threat (she assumes they want to kill the baby with the sword)
• Mentioning her child is dead (even indirectly) : instant wail!
• Saying they “found” her child (suggests she lost him = shame spiral + rage + yes, wail)

She is essentially a landmine of grief wrapped in sound.

To complicate thing, I added a Wail (Lesser) to her power, which she uses often (the big death banshee Wail is usable one / day)
WAIL (lesser) : shatter the nerves of all who draw near. All creatures who are within a 30 ft. radius must make a Fortitude save (DC 21) or be stunned by grief for 2-8 rounds. Those who make the save are instead staggered for 1-4 rounds.

Problem #2: Widderibbhin (sp?). If they meet the party before they get to Tristessa, they could make any number of attempts to trap / enslave the party and swipe the Eye of Vhaeraun so they can make their queen happy.

Yes these guys will be a problem (and I’m not talking about the spelling of their names). They will meet the PCs the first night they camp in Keening and ask them why they came to Keening.

Wrong answer – they attack.

But even if the PCs say to the specters they are bringing Tristessa her lost baby, they will want to see it. The PCs then have a problem, as it is dangerous to exhibit the Eye (as the PCs could fall under the illusion and enchantment of the item too). They refuse, the specter attacks. They show it, the specters will see something else and attack.

And later, when facing Tristessa, there will be a couple specters near them. When they show Tristessa the Eye, and she sees a baby, the specters will see something else.

Will they intervene to expose the fraud?

Problem #3: The Spider Queen may now be legally distinct from Lloth, demon queen of spiders, but Vhaeraun is Lloth's rebellious son. At your option, bringing an artifact named for him into a temple dedicated to his mum might have any number of unpleasant consequences. Maybe holding the Eye will burn Tristessa's skin, setting her off. The Eye could explode once it enters into the shrine of the Spider Queen.

IMC, it is the big bad Lolth that the players know from D&D knowledge, and when they learn that (decoration inside the cave complex), they will want to exit Keening as soon as they can!

[Mistmaster]

Can't the players use the Silence spell and communicate thought writtem signals?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

How much time will they have to write?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

From Gazetteer V, there's the pit full of baby skeletons.
Stumbling upon it could generate Horror and Madness saves... or it could do something very different if the Eye of Vhaeraun gets close enough, depending on how sentient all those undead babies are.
If they all see the Eye as something they want, they could come surging out of the pit...

Oh I forgot it was in Gaz 5 too.

I put a haunt in it :

The see bones as well as a few baby jewellry.

Juste before : suddenly the PC's breath freeze when exhaling as if it was very cold.
The haunt is triggered by anyone disturbing bones –
1) first a mental image of two motherly arms that hold you tighter and tighter!
2) When the haunt is triggered, on its initiative count, the haunt appears as the spectral form of a frozen baby swarm trying to get close to you for warmth.
Similar to inflict wounds spell but cold damage. The haunt has a +7 to hit hit and deals 4d6 cold damage on a successful hit. Lasts 1d4 r then stops for 24 hours
The haunt can be permanently pacified by burying the bones in a warm place.

But a horror check would be a good addition to it, seeing it from above the pit.

Ooooh ... scary stuff! Well-designed.

[Joël of the FoS]

Can't the players use the Silence spell and communicate thought writtem signals?

As designed for the moment, they won't get her attention! They have to extract her from her madness before discussing with her.

Joël

[Joël of the FoS]

Just reread gaz 5 - oh, a pit of crawling baby zombies in her inner sanctum.

I prefer the Tales of RL idea - a rift on the moutainside, where babies are thrown when they die. A pit which bottom is filled with tiny white bones.

Horrible enough, no need to add gore to it!

Joël

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Just reread gaz 5 - oh, a pit of crawling baby zombies in her inner sanctum.

I prefer the Tales of RL idea - a rift on the moutainside, where babies are thrown when they die. A pit which bottom is filled with tiny white bones.

Horrible enough, no need to add gore to it!

Joël

I agree

Anyway there will always be players who will take advantage of raw material lying there to create an army of mini skeletons. (No it has never happened to me, but I believe someone, somewhere in the multiverse has already done this).

[Joël of the FoS]

Swarm of Cute Baby Skeletons!

(Chibi idea )

[IanFordam]

Just reread gaz 5 - oh, a pit of crawling baby zombies in her inner sanctum.

I prefer the Tales of RL idea - a rift on the moutainside, where babies are thrown when they die. A pit which bottom is filled with tiny white bones.

Horrible enough, no need to add gore to it!

Joël

For what it's worth, I'm fairly certain my players would react more viscerally to the lifeless bones than the animated ones. The latter risks becoming just a combat encounter, while the former is horrible and sad.