Happy New Year!

There are some really good ideas with KCFR. I might have to borrow some for my next campaign if that is ok with you?

Scott

Fayreth, Son of the reknowned peacemaker Duke Ellmen Rengauld grew up during the days of his father achieving the “peacemaker” namesake. Ellmen Rengauld, a newly minted lord from long suffering military service arrived to his newly granted lands to find trouble. The duchey was in shambles: the previous Duke driving the commoners and even the local nobles to create their own city states. Ellmen set about the task of unifying his lands, pacifying uprisings, and quelling revolts. He did so with a combination of military might, wisdom, and mercy. His duchy eventually over the years came to love him, if not grudgingly respect him, and Ellmen eventually transitioned his lands into peace and burgeoning prosperity.

Fayreth resented the days his father spent away from him on his errands of mercy and pacification. When Fayreth’s mother passed away because the Clerics of the Rengauld estate were healing the dying peasants of the opposing factions, Fayreth became enraged. Fayreth never understood his fathers requirements for wisdom, or mercy. He felt that the best way to keep the commoners to heel was to crush them: burn their homes, and send their women screaming into the night cursing the day they sought arms against his family. By the time, Fayreth turned 16, he had vowed never to give in to weakness, never to be struck by the folly of mercy, and never to allow himself to be powerless in any form.

It was after uttering this vow, that the lesser goddess Talona, harbinger of Poison and Pain, took notice of Fayreth. She would become a greater God, and Fayreth was the key. Fayreth was contacted by agents of Talona, and brought into the priesthood. Given patronage by his newfound deity, Fayreth became the most powerful priest of Talona’s order in just 5 years. Meanwhile, he slowly replaced his father’s guards with those of Talona’s order.

Fayreth proved his devotion to his Goddess by sacrificing his father to Talona in the altar of a 1,000 year old temple of Pelor: desecrating the place, and turning it into a temple of ruin. This is when Fayreth finally became privy to Talona’s master plan: Fayreth would bring forth the presence of the Goddess on the Prime material plane, and while here she would subjugate the world, forcing it worship only her. She would do what no other God had done before!

To this end, Fayreth would use his position and wealth to amass an army to subjugate the lands around the Rengauld Estates and begin forcing the commoners to worship Talona. Those who would not were to be imprisoned into soul-presses: magical machines that drained the souls of the imprisoned and stored their power in crystals known as soul-stones for use in foul magical rituals. Finally, Fayreth would call upon the power of the soul stones in the temple of ruin, and place the essence of his Goddess into a suitable mortal vessel. Fayreth chose the daughter of his favorite cousin Elderra Rengauld, who had just announced via letter of being with child.

Fayreth now has approximately 9 months to accomplish his goals, and will do so with ruthless efficiency.

Tips, thoughts etc…
- Don’t rock the Boat. No one knows that the Former Duke Rengauld is dead, and any bucking of the system will result in the goodly and powerful of the area getting upset at you quickly. No one wants another civil war.
- Who to trust? The beauty of the Goddess of Poison’s plan is that the apple is rotting from within. telling your story to the “cleric of Pelor”, may just get you into more trouble than not.
- Moves within moves. The same man hiring adventurers to kill all the bandits in an area may be using the party to show off the virtues of Strength, and why the villagers should value the lack of Mercy. He may even be paying the bandits too. The party may inadvertantly *advance* the Big Bad’s schemes by killing the bandits!
- The bad guys are good. The bandits stealing supplies may just be the freedom fighters needing food. Is your party smart enough to deal with this?
- Evil isn’t always good for Evil. Evil clerics fear the rumblings their prayers give them about the moves Talona makes. She plans on stealing *their* followers, and messing up *their* plans too. Help will likely come from odd places.
- I tried to keep the The Rengauld Keep as close to unattainable as possible. There was so much fear about what was housed in this place that when the players finally got there they were paranoid about it.
- Old Habits die hard. Because of Ellmen’s mercy the leaders of the revolt from 20 years ago are still alive or their children remember the battle their father didn’t come home from. Should your players assist in the revolution? Pacify it? Focus on Rengauld, and let the Nobles sort it out?
- Alignment matters. Lawful Good Palladins or clerics should have problems offing the local head of state. Even if he technically is poisoning the well by preaching Evil deeds. Lawful Evil folks should have issues killing off someone in power that they have leverage against.