This is Part VIII of my series on adapting the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead to Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne setting, Rober E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey’s setting, early–to–mid 14th Century France, and using the NWN/D&D 3rd edition ruleset. In this post I will be looking at the Lair of the Zombie Lord section of the module. To read Part I of this series, click here.
LAIR OF THE ZOMBIE LORD
According to the module, this section occurs after the PCs have destroyed Jean sieur de Crapaud and crazed killer and of course have not broken into the Old Cemetery (or located the secret entrance) and dispatched Marcel. Like all good stories, the tension must recede before the epic zombie attack. The villagers are thrilled that the crazed killer is dead and throw a party for the party that night. If the PCs sneak out before the party, Luc (or his ghost) still follows them and just when they are out of sight and earshot of the village, Luc repeats a new verse:
“Look for the scroll where the old rest fine,
behind the stone where six stars shine.
The finding, however, will cause much pain,
beware the time of the falling rain.”
Whoa! Luke is lucid! I guess the adventure is not done after all. Actually I would think that crazy Luc still following the party would make that obvious but….
The Storm
That night during the party at the Full Moon Inn, the clouds burst with a torrential rainfail! Concidentally, that is also exactly when Luc starts reciting the Hiscosa verses correctly (see the module).
Finally the vicar, Father Brucian comes clean and tells how Jean brought Marcel’s corpse to him, how he prayed to Our Lady for a miracle but none came, and how heartbroken Jean became.
Fr. Brucian finally connects the dots and realises that their troubles began only after Marcel died and therefore Marcel is behind it all! And it took a guy with an Intelligence of 14 and a Wisdom of 16 this long to figure it out?!? Once again, Slavicsek stretches credibility quite thin in an attempt to be dramatic.
Naturally, the very moment that the vicar completes his tale, a villager at the party keels over dead and then rises up 1d4 minutes later as a zombie and “rushes” (a zombie rushes?!? Seriously?!?) over to grab Luc. If Luc is dead, then the zombie goes for the PC holding the Hiscosa scroll or the one who wrote down Luc’s verse. Once the zombie is dispatched, Luc repeats the Fay admonition to find Marcel (see above).
Zombies on the Move
“The dead are approaching the village! An army of the walking dead!”
Gremin le Bailif bolts out the door. If the PCs join him, the the following happens otherwise Gremin returns to tell everyone the following:
“At the eastern edge of the village, more than two dozen zombies are coming!”
Gremin implores the PCs to help him setup barricades. The vicar (who must have come along) urges the PCs to instead find Marcel.
“Find Marcel’s body. I am certain that it holds the key to the terrors which have befallen us.”
If the PCs head for the old cemetery, they can get there without molestation. If on the other hands, they head back for the Inn first, or if stayed at the end they must get through the zombies before the cemetery. For the Grym Zombie™ game statistics, please see the end of this post.
Lair of the Zombie Master Lord
Why is this tunnel here? It is not like Marcel dug it out and then covered it with a stone slab and carved six stars into it. The six stars are supposed to represent the six verses of the Hiscosa prophesy, but why? And how in the world is a zombie (or anyone for that matter) going to get past the statue from below? I can understand a statue concealing the tunnel, but that makes it a one-way tunnel. It is going to be hard enough to move a presumably stone statue out of the way, but from below?!? Oh man, sometimes this module gives me a splitting headache! Hopefully I can fix this “tunnel” before I write up the inevitable pdf.
Note that I am not going to reproduce every building in the module, just the ones that merit a comment.
Ancient Gate: Two gargouille statues guard the gate. Are they just statues? Close examination reveals the name of the sculptor, Blaise Reynard (from The Maker of Gargoyles by Clark Ashton Smith). If the party is only 1st level, I would leave these gargouilles as statues but just give hints like ‘with each flash of lightning, the statues turn their gaze to you’ or something like that. If the party is higher level with enchaunted weapons, then absolutely have the gargouilles attack. And as for the heavy iron chains and padlock… this is supposed to be the Middle Ages, right? So instead of very expensive iron gate, chains, and padlock the “gate” is a heavy wooden door with a heavy wooden beam across it. The beam is swollen with moisture and stuck.
Nota bene: The following is — in my opinion — a pointless cemetery crawl because the Crapaud Tomb is quite visible no matter where the PCs enter.
Decrepit Mausoleum: The bats are not giant, they are in fact undead (thanks to Jean’s farts)!. Change the hit points to 1d3, damage is 1, and give them zombie immunities. The idea here is to annoy and slow down the PCs, giving Marcel and his gang to catch the PCs.
Flooded Mausoleum: Cool imagery but there is no way that enough rain has fallen to make a pool several feet deep. And the fact that the cemetery is built high above the water table also makes it very unlikely. And why does this mausoleum have three skeletons in it? I have to think about this one….
Tomb of Rats: For some reason a family of rats live here despite the fact that there have been no interments in a very long time. For the moment, they shall be zombie rats with 1d3 hit points, bite for 1 point of damage, and have zombie immunities.
The Crypt of Stars: Despite the fact that this is where Marcel died and Luc went crazy… there is nothing of significance at all. Just like there is no reason why a ju-ju zombie was created by an arch-mage and left here. Slavicsek!!!
The Final Battle
“The ceiling is a glass dome, through which you can see the storm clouds parting to unleash a stream of moonlight.
A platform of bones lies in the middle of the chamber, flanked by two flaming braziers that are fashioned from stacked skulls. Atop the platform is a finely-crafted throne.”
While this is all very evocative of pulp horror, it is not at all appropriate. First off, a glass dome is an anachronism due to the expense and difficulty of getting such quality glass and supporting steel. Second, due to the age and neglect the glass dome would be highly damaged. Third, two flaming brazier made from stacked, presumably human skulls is there because Marcel wanted a pair of braziers? Because he is cold? Or it looks cool? And where did he get the throne? Is Marcel actually an expert at crafting braziers and thrones out of bones and skulls? This scene is described like the lair of a Pulp necromancer which is cool and all except that Marcel is not a necromancer and has only had three weeks to decorate the family tomb. I cannot imagine that the family tomb was originally laid out like this. As a side point, gothic architecure was quite uncommon in the Occitan region of Southern France, and given the age of this mausoleum (more than two centuries), the architectural style is most likely going to be First Romanesque, a.k.a Lombard Romanesque.
So there can be stained glass windows revealing the moonlight, but not a glass dome. And we have to dispense with the necromancer decor because it is silly in this context.
On the 6th round of combat or just before Marcel is destroyed, the eclipse must happen. After all, the PCs are fate magnets. Yes, it is contrived but the PCs are fulfilling a prophesy here after all.
The Eclipse
A lightning bolt shatters one of the stained glass windows and the moonlight turns crimson. Luc immediately changes his chant to:
“The light of the sky shining over the dead
shall gutter and fail, turning all to crimson.”
In spite of not knowing the Hiscosa prophesies, Marcel freaks out at the crimson moonlight and then he and his minions cower for 1d4 rounds:
“The character is frozen in fear and can take no actions. A cowering character takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class and loses her Dexterity bonus (if any).”
Note that Marcel et alia are not helpless nor paralysed, they are simply cowering.
According to the module, when Marcel is destroyed all remaining zombies wander off. Instead, I shall have the zombies who left their vaults return to them. All of the other zombies and ghouls collapse into a heap of rotting flesh (cf. The Thing on the Doorstep).
The Sun Returns
The storm has passed and the pleasant late Octobre weather of the Camargue returns. If Luc is alive, he comes out of his trance and if dead then his spirit is now at rest.
The PCs are given fresh food and supplies by the villagers. If Luc is alive, he is now the new Lord of the Crapaud Manoir and if dead, then Bailif Gremin will be the interim castellan. Fr. Brucian will contact Aigas Mòrtas to inform the council of Jean’s and Marcel’s deaths. He is not sure how to explain such deaths but will figure out some sort of explanation that will not warrant an investigation.
If Luc is alive, he will be extraorinarily grateful and offer the PCs their own plot and cottage rent-free, so long as they reside in the village.
FIN
Or is it? In the next post I am going to re-visit some of the NPCs and consider incorporating some ideas & imagery from Gothic literature, Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne, Robert E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey, and H.P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, Statement of Randolph Carter, & Call of Cthulhu. In the meantime, here are the promised stats for Grym Zombies™.
GRYM ZOMBIES™
Walking Dead
Size/Race: Medium Undead Construct
Hit Dice: 1d12 (12 hit points)
Initiative: -4
Speed: 20 ft. (no run)
Armour Class: 6 (-4 Dex), touch 6, flat-footed 6
Base Attack: -4
Attack: 2 Slams -3 mêlée (1d6)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. / 5 ft.
Special Attacks: —
Special Qualities: Single actions only, Undead/Construct qualities, Immune to Piercing damage, 75% resistant to Bludgeoning damage, Turn resistance +3
Vulnerabilities: Divine magic (2×), Positive energy (2×)
Saves: Fortitude auto success, Reflex -4, Will auto success
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 3, Con 10, Int —, Wis —, Cha —
Skills: —
Feats: Ambidexterity, Blind-fight, Blindsight, Weapon focus (natural)
Environment: Any
Organisation: None
Challenge Rating: 1
Treasure: None
Alignment/Intent: Usually Chaotic/Evil (see note below)
Advancement: See below
Level Adjustment: —
Faction: Hostile
The Walking Dead cannot fail concentration checks.
The Walking Dead can Sense Living Creatures 120' away. This prevents living creatures from moving silently or hiding from them within 120 feet.
As Grym Zombies age, they become more powerful. Walking Dead become the Risen Dead who become Rotting Skeletons, who become Bloody Skeletons, who finally become true Skeletons. Sages speculate that skeletons eventually become some kind of spectre.
Types & Causes of Walking Dead: Animating a corpse through the necromantic spell, animate dead, is not the only way of creating the Walking Dead. A person could be cursed to walk the earth after death or have unfinished business. In which case, those zombies are free-willed and have an intelligence, wisdom, and charisma ability scores.
Nota Bene: The animation rite (spell or ability) involves either summoning the shade from the underworld to return to its corpse or to summon a lost soul (one who didn’t receive a proper funereal). From a “rationalist” perspective, the lost soul posesses the corpse only when the original shade is not in the underworld, i.e. in heaven/paradise/elysium, et cetera. However, Christianity for most part suggests that the posessing spirit is almost always a malevolent spirit — a demon. Implying that the wicked are getting punished and the nigromauncer cannot snatch those souls, therefore a demon is enslaved instead. What I like to do is have a rule is that if the nigromauncer animates the corpse within three days of death, the soul is enslaved within its own corpse; otherwise it goes on to its just reward.
Necromancy (Gr. nekromanteia, L. necromantia) is the divination from corpses (e.g. speak with dead) whereas nigromauncie (L. nigromantia) is black magick. In 3e terms, spells with the Evil descriptor is nigromauncie but not all necromancy is nigromauncie. Confused? Do not be concerned as very few non-spellcasters understand the difference either.
On a related note, maleficium is harmful magick and veneficium is venomous magick. In Roman times up through Early Modern Europe, veneficium was highly feared and incurred the consquence of the most painful deaths imaginable. The modern term ‘voodoo dolls’ is an example of veneficium — magical pain & death from an unknown source.
So we end up with speak with dead is necromantia, animate dead is both nigromantia and necromantia but neither are maleficium or veneficium. Whereas a spell such as magick jar is necromantia, nekromantia, maleficium, and veneficium because it involves the transference of a spirits (necromantia), which is evil (nigromantia), harmful (maleficium), and done secretly from a distance (veneficium).
For Part IX, click here.
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