Campaign Help < new Dark Hallow >

[hitokiri523]

ok so im working on a campaign idea and unfortunately i am stuck with some of the fine tuneing parts. Im using the dresden files world for my world the only difference is there are no knights of the cross since im using the nails from the crucifiction as an item of power in the story.
ok so here is the story.
Around the world several robberies are taking place. The places being robbed are churches, monestaries, temples, basically any holly place. the items that have been stolen are as follows
1: Holy Grail
2: Spear of Destiny
3: Shroud of Turrin
4: Three nails from the crucifiction
5: A large piece of the One True Cross < the actual wooden cross Jesus was crucified on >

The thiefs are going to turn out to be Necromancers < an over used idea but hey why break away from the classics lol >
and their goal is to use these items of power to steal Jesus' power and become gods. Now here is where i am running into the snag. I cant think of how the ritual would work or how they would actually summon the power from the artifact and take it as their own. Any ideas or comments would be very helpfull. Thank you

[Haru]

You could have one of them do a reenactment of the crucifiction, only at the last step instead of dying, he can eat the spirit of Jesus or something like that.
Or better yet: we know that old spirits make strong ghosts. If you not only have the cross, but also for example some genuine roman helmets and other rrlics, you could have a group of ghosts, the remnants of the actual people participating in the cruicifiction, playing this. At the point in the story, where Jesus dies, the darkhallow begins, because at this point the emotional energy in the scene should be at its peak. If this happens somewhere in a park where there is little else, I would even have the events create the scene itself, so if you only have part of the cross, it fills up with ectoplasm. Ghostly scenery is created, so at its peak, the fight seems to actually take place during the crucifiction.

[hitokiri523]

i like that haru. i didnt think about having actual roman armor or costumes that would help. I also just got the idea of using a circle with a five point pentagram and each of the jesus related artifacts is a point of the pentagram and the person supposed to be getting the power is in the center.
The reinactment of the crucifiction is also a good point to add.
thanks this is gonna help.
Anyone else want to throw in any ideas. Or how they would run the ceremony because im new to being the DM and could use all the help you guys are willing to give.

[Haru]

Ok, I didn't have the best day as those go, and it certainly won't let me sleep (it is about 4:15 in the morning here). But I've come up with some more things, they might be weird, they might be disturbing, but they might help as well. Anyway, you've been warned

So you want to perform a Darkhallow. One of the most important thing, as it seems, is the atmosphere. An area of fear and despair around the place where the Darkhallow will be performed. So let's make one of those.

At first, I would start with some sort of headquarter. Always good for the bad guys to have a lair. I like lairs.
For what you are trying to do, I would give them a church. Either they bought a church (Some are being sold, as far as I understand), or they stole it. How do you steal a church you ask? Easy: A big and old church (think along the lines of St. Marie of the Angels, Harry's favourite church) is being completely renovated. The bad guys sneak in and take over, and redesign it for their purpose. To give you an understanding of the degree: If you would look at the church in the nevernever, you would see the church, simple as that. After the "renovation" it still looks like a church, but it is build from bones and rotting human flesh. Inside the real church, you would find anything that any person of faith would think of as an abomination. You can get really creative here

Then there are the Knights of the Cross and the swords. Don't take them out. Use them. Use them hard. Ahm ok, to clarify: The Knights are a great force of good in the world, so what better to lead it into despair than to kill a few of their greatest heroes? Oh, and unmake the swords in the process, of course.
You might not want to do it with all 3 of the Knights/Swords, because that would feel a bit repetitive, so 2 of them can be killed off stage, while the last one (and make sure they know the last Knight IS the last Knight) will be killed in front of the PC. With his own sword.
If the necromancers want the nails, they are inside the 3 Swords. As the necromancers are human, they should have no problem to unmake them and retrieve the nails. Even better: If the swords are not only named "Hope", "Faith" and "Love", but are also like conduits to those emotions, unmaking the swords in a big evil ritual could backlash into the surroundings and enforce the desired atmosphere needed for the darkhallow. You are not only going to get a few more sessions out of this, but losing a Knight and actually seeing the world around them make a turn for the worse should be enough to make them understand how dire the situation is. I know, this is a little railroading (they have no chance of saving the knight or the sword. Ok, maybe they can save the knight.), but totally worth it, in my opinion. There could even be spies in the churches organisations connected to the knights, that betray them and lead them into traps.

During the whole story, you should kill of a bunch of the necromancers. Either you throw them to the wolves (also known as "your players") or they get killed by their co-workers. A victory every once in a while is a great way to keep players motivated in an otherwise hopeless scenario, so don't take away that fun for them. Of course they can be victories like "they kill one necromancer, but the other gets away with an artifact" or "..., but he can kill the knight of the cross" and so on. Make them suffer

Then there is the whole Jesus issue. It might be possible to summon 2 Jesuses. Jesii? Ok, it shouldn't be possible for grammatical reasons, but let's not get carried away by that. Jesus died at the cross, and he... kinda... died again. So maybe it is possible to summon one Ghost-Jesus with the Cross and the Nails and everything and the other with the Shroud. If it is possible, you could have 2 darkhallows at the same time, maybe the PCs can find a way for them to cancel each other out. One necromancer sucking the power out of the other and vice versa. I like that picture.

Of course, a single Jesus would probably be better, but I wanted to mention the idea above anyway. If you go with the single Jesus, the crucifixion scene would be a great way to go. The church should have some sort of garden or park close by, that would be the best place for something like this. Of course the plants are mostly dead, fungi and the likes spreading over formerly green grass and tall trees. When the ritual begins (which should be about when the players arrive) the items are placed along the line of the crucifixion walk. Shadows appear and form the loose shapes of roman townfolk and legionaries. The necromancer (at this point he and the players should have wiped out the competition) is standing at the end of the walk, next to the cross, ready to nail Ghost-Jesus to the partly-ghost-cross. If this is completed, the real darkhallow begins. The most interesting part is going to be during the crucifixion walk. The closer Ghost-Jesus gets to the cross, the more corporeal not only he himself but the whole scene will become. If the Players start interfering, the townfolk and legionaries will attack them. Not because they are ghosts controlled by the necromancer, but because nobody will stop roman justice, it is their duty as good Romans and legionaries.

If something was to wobbly-bobbly in there, I will be glad to clarify, just ask. I hope you get a great game out of this. Enjoy

[mithrandirthewhite]

This is an interesting idea but one thing: Make sure your players would all be okay with this plot idea.  I mean it seems like a no brainer, but although I like the idea somewhat (the stealing of Christ's power seems odd to me since his power is God's) people get reeeallly touchy about these topics.

[hitokiri523]

wow
< pulls out little notebook  and writes down everything >
thanks haru the church is a nice touch especially causig the psychic scar on it basically and taking away the holy power.
Im gonna have some work to do with this one but you have defenately helped me fleash this idea out better than i had ever hoped.
thanks.
and yes white i know its kinda a touchy subject but that should motivate a few of my guys to kick some necromancers asses even harder but i will remmeber that advice.
anyone else want to throw any last pieces of advice in or else im gonna run with this.
thanks everyone

[Michael Sandy]

Some things the necromancers might need for that spell:

In order to use holy objects, you need someone who Believes in them.  You would need someone who believed very strongly in all of those holy relics, but who was turned against the Church, or turned against Michael's Employer.

Since this in a new spell for the necromancers, 'research' alone isn't going to cut it.  They will have to experiment.  Try different ways of tying the holy items into their spell.

So maybe they will attempt a black mass.  So the necromancers send their minions out looking for various things for a Black Mass, real or fanciful.  Imagine a bunch of lickspittle minions, searching for what they Think their boss wants.  Like the secret society nitwits in Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards book.

The question isn't only, what do they need, but how does their search for what they need get the PCs involved?

Maybe there is a church that has been involved in such scandal that it no longer counts as holy ground.  Maybe the necromancers had something to do with that.

Maybe there is a bit of a rivalry between the various necromancers, and one wants to use the PCs to eliminate the others.  Or one thinks that one of the PCs has an item or book in their library that would give them useful ideas for their spell.

Maybe have part of the heated debate between the necromancers about their Hallow Dark (or whatever they call it) is over heard by the clicheed informant who dies or goes into a coma before telling the PCs the whole story.


For a spell involving defeating death, maybe they think you have to sacrifice someone who has died before.  So someone is searching hospital records for people with near death experiences.

[Taran]

If you wanna go with more religious themes and start delving into religious tradition, a few christian faiths beleive in Trans-substantiation which is the actual turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.  Maybe the necromancers have to perform a perverted form of communion;  So the whole ritual is a dark re-creation of the last supper and in order to absorb the power they have to eat and drink the body and blood.

Ironically, you could have the necromancers version of Judas who, at the last minute, tries to help the PC's by betraying the ritual.

I was thinking also about "Stigmata" which is getting the wounds of Christ.  Some people claim to randomly get bleeding hands, feet, side.  The necromancers might be trying to track down someone like that.  Maybe this person approaches the PC's telling them someone's been following him/her etc..

[Haru]

Ironically, you could have the necromancers version of Judas who, at the last minute, tries to help the PC's by betraying the ritual.

I like this idea, and it fits in perfectly.

[Taran]

The last thing I'd say, to give your ritual a "time crunch", it seems perfectly fitting for the ritual to occure on Good Friday and end at 3pm when Jesus actually died on the cross.  There are still many churches that have a 3 hour service that ends at 3pm on Good Friday.  So the whole thing could start a few days before and build towards that end with the Ritual starting at Noon.  There was also a huge storm associated with Jesus' death, and storms, as you know, make for a potent boost to the rituals power as well as adds some tension.  You can't forget pathetic fallacy - it's a perfect recipe!

[SunlessNick]

Ironically, you could have the necromancers version of Judas who, at the last minute, tries to help the PC's by betraying the ritual.  -  Taran

And perhaps the lead Necromancer needs him to:  he has to be killed, like Jesus was, with the PC's hopefully filling the roles of the Romans, and he'll take Jesus's power while dead (after which he can of course resurrect himself - who says only good guys need to take leaps of faith?).  Therefore, the key to victory is work out who is the situation's analogue of Barabbas and kill him.

[Haru]

Therefore, the key to victory is work out who is the situation's analogue of Barabbas and kill him.

Well, if everything is turned upside down, it should be one of the good guys. Maybe even the Knight they saved earlier and who is now willing to sacrifice himself in order to stop the ritual. Or even better, one of the players is willing to sacrifice his character. If the buildup has been good enough, I know I most certainly would be.

[Taran]

So, I guess it makes sense that there will be 12 participants plus the one who will become a demi-god.  So thirteen participants seems like a fitting number.

[mithrandirthewhite]

perfect for a high circle

[Haru]

This gets better by the minute