Continuing my adaptation of the AD&D 2nd Edition Ravenloft module RQ1 Night of the Walking Dead to Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne, Robert E. Howard’s Cormac Fitzgeoffrey stories, and the mid-14th Century Petite Camargue region of France. Part One can be found here.
In this installment, I shall look at the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of Jean becoming a Zombie Lord. As you may recall, I discussed in Part II how Jean being bitten by a ju-ju zombie is problematic because ju-ju zombies are created by the use of the energy drain spell which is 9th level! Why would an arch-mage of 17th level or greater create a ju-ju zombie and leave it in a crypt in an obscure and out–of–the–way village?
A DEEP DIVE INTO THE ZOMBIE LORD’S ORIGIN & MOTIVATION(S)
Does this adventure depend on Marcel becoming a zombie lord? Yes, absolutely! Does becoming a zombie lord depend on getting bitten by a ju-ju zombie? Not at all. According to the AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix (1992) by William W. Connors (Van Richten’s Guide to Ghosts & Masque of the Red Death: A Guide to Gothic Earth) :
“They [zombie lords] are formed on rare occassions as the result of a raise dead spell cast while in the demiplane of Ravenloft.”
So a ju-ju zombie is not necessary. However, the raise dead spell and Ravenloft requirements are of course problematic. In The Crusades Sourcebook Historical Reference for AD&D 2nd Edition, the raise dead spell is not available. However, miracles are. So in this scenario Frère Brucian prays for the miracle of resurrection on behalf of Jean Crapaud. The chance of success is -2% (base 1 %, +4% for 2nd level cleric, -7% for 7th level spells). If Jean had been a Good man, he would get an additional 5% chance for a miracle. Even if we generously give a 1% chance, Jean did not roll a double-zero (00). Now the module did say that Brucian had a scroll with 3 raise dead spells on it, which leaves 2 to use on the PCs. For me that stretches plausibilty too much. I do not deem it necessary to have a couple of raise dead spells just in case two of the PCs die or one dies twice. In fact when I ran this adventure back in 1994, one of the PCs did in fact die. After the remaining party members defeated Jean, the DM-PC priest of Serapis (Greco-Romano-Egyptian Hades) performed a ceremony whereby the PCs pleaded their case to the Lord & Lady of the Dead themselves. Serapis was unmoved by Sgt. Seamus’s unjust death but Isis (Persephone / Proserpina) took pity and convinced Serapis to give them a quest whereby success would return Seamus to life. For our purposes, it is enough to say that the 1% chance of a resurrected wicked Jean failed.
The Ravenloft requirement is of course not applicable in this case since the adventure takes place in a pseudo-historical Earth. So is it enough to say that Jean rolled a critical failure on his miracle check (01) and then backed it up with another critical failure (01) resulting in the Prince of Darkness himself responding with an anti-miracle of the un-resurrection? I am not so sure about that. Because that tells us that praying for the resurrection of an evil person runs the risk of creating an undead creature. Thefore, unless the petitioner is sure that the dead person was not wicked in life, they should not take the chance? Not only do I not want to get into theological considerations but it also does not at all sound like something Clark Ashton Smith or Robert E. Howard would have written or even H.P. Lovecraft for that matter.
Instead, why not something simpler? Perhaps Jean was killed by an entombed ancestral zombie lord (or lady) who then transferred their corrupted soul into his body? Or cast a kind of magick jar spell, transferring their souls shortly before the ancestor crumbled into dust? After all, a non-embalmed corpse would leave nothing but teeth and grave wax after a century in the mausoleum due to the humid air of the surrounding wetlands. So perhaps not even a zombie lord but some kind of evil spirit tied to the remaining teeth. Perhaps this is why “Marcel” is craving human life so that (s)he arrests the decomposition process. Jean goes crazy not just because Marcel died and became undead but also because of the evil spirit that has taken posession of Marcel’s body. Something inspired by The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft perhaps…!
I definitely like the idea that Marcel is driven to murder and feeds on human corpses in order to arrest his decomposition and possibly even restore him (cf. Frank in Hellraiser).
Would Luc still have his twin connexion if Marcel was posessed? Not if the souls were switched (magick jar). If another soul was dominating Marcel then Jean would know that something was wrong — which is fine because Jean would be afraid that the foreign soul was hurting or would destroy Marcel’s soul. However, their link is empathic rather than sympathetic or telepathic so all Jean can know is Marcel’s feelings and impulses (anger, hunger, &c.). So it would not work for another evil entity to “kidnap” Marcel. Marcel must still be Marcel somehow.
So if not disposession (magick jar), then some kind of curse or disease caused by … what? Biten by an ancestor who then collapses into dust? Reading a forbidden scroll?
In either case (ancestor or scroll), a terrible secret is discovered by Marcel and Luc. One which has been literally entombed by centuries most likely by the founder Pierre de Tarascon. What terrible crime could Pierre have committed?
Perhaps Pierre was not alone when he first came to this land? Since he had to make peace with the Mother of Toads in order to domesticate the land, perhaps the price was his wife, Aradia? But if that was the case, how did she end up undead?
Or perhaps the couple did not make peace with the Mother of Toads initially? What if Aradia was a necromancer? Perhaps they brought some slaves to Le Petite Camarga to drain a portion of the wetlands. Those slaves died from the bad air (mal aria) and were animated to finish their work. Then they cross-bred the local wild rice with some Egyptian rice to create their soon–to–be–famous sanguine rice. But then they were attacked by killer frogs and animated vegetation sent by the Mother of Toads. The price of peace was the destruction of the zombies & the necromancer and the marriage of Pierre and the Mother. But Aradia the necromancer, determined to have her revenge on both her unfaithful husband and the Toad-Witch, did not remain dead but instead became undead whilst biding her time in the tomb. When Luc and Marcel discovered her, she cursed, bit, and/or embraced him as her final act.
And just to close the loop, why not connect the couple with the infamous
Tarasque of
Tarascon or of
Noves, both of which are in Southeast France? Perhaps it was Aradia who summoned the tarasque that
Saint Martha of Bethany subdued and the townsfolk (or villagers) ultimately stoned to death. Pierre and Aradia has to flee Tarascon before they were caught and executed. Perhaps Aradia animated the victims of the tarasque and took the zombies with them. All of this would have happened in AD 48 when Tarascon was under Roman rule, specifically
Titus Vinius the proconsular governor of
Gallia Narbonensis.
Getting back to Marcel & Luc, perhaps when they opened up Aradia’s tomb, they were shocked to discover a 13 centuries-old corpse. Marcel casts a speak with dead spell. If Aradia was actually dead, then the spell is successful. Whereas if she were undead thus “playing dead,” the spell fails. Or, the spell fails but Aradia acts as if it were successful and whispers the answers thus forcing Marcel to lean over close to her mouth, enabling her to bite him by surprise! Or to administer the Kiss of Death…!
I really like the idea of Aradia’s corpse kissing Marcel, swapping souls (or dominating Marcel), and then her corpse crumbling into dust. Luc and most any person would be horrified at watching a corpse arise, kiss their brother, and then crumble! Marcel-Aradia would then swoon and collapse at the shock of Aradia’s penetration. Luc runs to his brother Jean who then follows him back to the tomb. Jean assumes Marcel is dead and takes the body to Brucian. Frère Brucian, finding no pulse then prays for a miracle but it is not answered. Jean wails in agony at the death of his brother. Marcel is interred in the very same tomb that belonged to Aradia. Jean visits the body to mourn his brother’s death but “Marcel” speaks to him! Is Jean going mad? Marcel tells Jean of his chance to come back to the living if he can feed on the flesh of a living person. Jean denies this of course and flees. But the memory of their conversation haunts him and he can still hear Marcel’s voice in his head. Jean goes back to the tomb and speaks with Marcel again. Marcel is more insistent and pleads for flesh else he will decay and be dead forever. Jean gives in and leads one of the serfs (slaves) back to Marcel’s tomb. Marcel is grateful and proceeds to suck out the brains and vital fluids.
In other words, lift plot elements from my favourite horror film, Hellraiser and the original novella, The Hellbound Heart.
Once the serfs (slaves) are all dead but Marcel (Aradia) is not restored, Jean stops bringing victims. A heated argument ensues and Jean leaves. Marcel (Aradia) grows hungry and desperate and digs a tunnel out of the ancient cemetery. That night he (she) goes out into the village and feasts upon an unsuspecting victim — Gremin’s son! The next morning Gremin finds the withered husk of his son and has a flashback to a traumatic experience he had during his tour of duty in the Holy Land. His unit found an ancient tomb and decided to loot it only to discover the occupant was “alive.” All but Gremin were either captured or slaughtered by the walking corpse. Gremin managed to escape but only after watching his brother–in–arms get their fluids sucked out. He made the difficult trek back to camp and reported delirously what had happened. The knights in the encampment forced him to lead them to the tomb, but Gremin could not find it again.
Jean was shocked that Marcel had escaped and fed upon Gremin’s son. Since that discovery, Jean negotiated a deal with Marcel to bring him bodies. But instead of Marcel becoming human again, he became more powerful and began animating the unsuitable corpses into zombies and skeletons.
Are the ghouls necessary?
But what about the ghouls? Does Jean still force his servants to eat human flesh? Jean is at his wit’s end. He loathes himself for bringing victims to Jean but justifies it as saving both the village and his brother.
The existence of ghouls in the original module has always been problematic. I have always found Slavicsek’s excuse of Jean being too cowardly to taste human flesh himself yet forces his servants to do in solidarity with Marcel as being distasteful (pardon the pun). It certainly is a good scene to have the PCs peek through the windows and see a ghoulish feast but does it have to be in this module? Having ghouls introduces competition for the corpses. Why would a zombie lord tolerate ghouls? A zombie lord wants to increase his dominion and cannot do that if ghouls are eating his rightful property and especially if the ghouls themselves are growing in number.
What if I removed the ghouls entirely? What then to do with the manoir house? Of course, why is there a townhouse in the first place? The purpose of a fortified manoir house is to have a fortress where the entire village can escape to in case of attack. It also serves as the residence for the local lord or administrator and the court of justice. Why would the manoir house be out in the fields?
So I can get rid of the townhouse and place the fortified manoir house between the village and the fields. The PCs can try to break into the fortified manoir house per the module but there is no need to have them witness a ghoulish dinner party (let’s save that for a ghoul-themed adventure, shall we?). It stands to reason that once Jean runs out of serfs (slaves) he then turns on his house-servants. Once they are all gone, only then does he stalk the village. The villagers have no truck with with serfs and little with the house-servants. So it is no surprise that there are only suspicions regarding the fields and big house.
Marcel’s Motivation
Since puberty, Marcel’s dreams have been haunted by Aradia. However, he did not recognise her as his ancestor but more like a succubus, that is to say with a sexual element. Her visitations also led him to search for magical tomes while at the Université de Montpellier (or at Avignon?) and to uncover his family’s history when at home. This search became an obsession which led him to the ancient cemetery and ultimately to Aradia’s tomb. Once he had learned the speak with dead spell, he became determined to speak with the ghost of Aradia and learn the truth about what happened.
Book of Eibon (Liber Ivonis)
Of course, the Book of Eibon has to have a place in this adventure if this is any kind of homage to Clark Ashton Smith and Averoigne. Ideally, the Hiscosa scroll should be a leaf taken from the Liber Ivonis (Latin translation of the Book of Eibon).
In the module, the prophet’s name is spelled Hyskosa. The Occitanian alphabet has no Y nor K, so they would spell his name as Hiscosa, Hischosa, or Hisqosa. My knowledge of Occitanian is extremely limited so I cannot offer anything close to a learned opinion. Hischosa will not work because the majority of native English speakers will pronounce the ch as in cherry rather then in achtung. I am attracted to the Hisqosa spelling because it looks quite exotic whereas Hiscosa looks rather mundane.
There is no need to give the Hisqosa page any magical properties as it is enough to come from the Book of Eibon and for Marcel to obsess over it.
NEXT UP: Click here for a deep dive into Brucian and the character Mordu–Harley Warren–Samuel Loveman (conspiracy theorist or prophet?).
