[Blog] Moorkok the Slayer

[Havard]

Just posted an entry on this legendary character on my blog:

Skandaharians, warriors of the north. Not just your run of the mill noble seafaring norsemen. No these are blood-thirsty, human sacrificing killing machines. Strength and raw brutality is the way to earn respect among this people. They are feared warriors, but none were as feared as Moorkok the Slayer.

While most of his kin are gray or blue eyed with hair ranging from dark to light blonde, Moorkok would stand out with his reddish hair and sparkling green eyes. These features betrayed a foreign origin, but no Skandaharian dared speak ill of his parentage. Or those that did do not live to tell the tale. Rumors circulate even today though that demonic blood runs through his veins. Other say he stems from the mysterious realm of Rhun. The Warrior is tall and powerfully built. In battle, he wears metal armor and a deadly mace. He rides a white war horse.

Through battle, Moorkok rose in the ranks of the Skandaharians, until he became one of the champions to join the Hirdr; Jarl Thorsen’s personal guard.

In the Year 998, the Northern Lords fully understood the threat that was known as the Egg of Coot. They decided to join with the Baron of Blackmoor. Moorkok personally led an attack against the Coot stronghold of Trollgate. Something happened there at Trollgate. The Skandaharian army was wiped out. Their leader was not slain however. In the midst of battle, he heard a voice calling his name. As if entranced, he abandoned his men and left the battlefield.

Since that day, Moorkok has served the Egg. He has done this so successfully, that the Egg has named him Prince of the Realm and has decided that Moorkok will be the one to lead the next invasion against Blackmoor. This is the day Moorkok waits for. He also hopes to get a chance to test his mettle against Marfeldt the Barbarian, the only one he considers an equal.

http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/20 ... layer.html

Some things I left out of the blog entry:
* Moorkok is guarded by six Bronze Golems created by the Egg.
* He is 17th level, one level higher than Marfeldt
* His intimidating War Mace is "only" +1. Might want to beef that up.
* I wrote "metal armor", but DA1 says plate. I am totally opposed to anyone even the tiniest bit related to Skandaharians wearing plate. If you fall into the water wearing that, you die! With chain, you can at least perhaps manage to keep floating for a few seconds so your friends can drag you back into the boat.

-Havard

[Havard]

Any suggestions on various ways to use this villain in a campaign?

-Havard

[RobJN]

Challenge accepted Look for an article within the next day or three.....

[RobJN]

The Twilight Kingdom was not the only realm of the Fey on Skothar. At one time, so the legends say, before the rise of Men, the fey ruled over the entirety of the continent, from the steaming jungles of Tangor to the frozen wastes that hugged the edge of the world in the North.

There rose among the courts and kingdoms and counties two queens, sisters, born of the same mother but with different fathers, one with hair like the sun and eyes like the southern seas. The other had skin like snow, and hair black as a raven on a moonless night, with eyes as the storm-tossed seas of the north.

Both were hailed as the most beautiful among the fey, and were pursued by lord after lord of the lesser fey kingdoms. These they turned away in droves, at one point making a contest of how many would petition for suitorship in a season. Or how many would return, after having been refused. Or to see how many times a given lord would try, in the course of a century.

The sisters laughed the sidhe lords away. They had no need for any suitor, had no plans to take a husband, forge a kingdom. They had each other, and that was all they had ever needed.

It is not known what caused the schism between the sisters. In the turning of a season, the trading of the moon and sun in the sky, their love for each other withered, blackened, froze, only to burst forth as a blazing, terrible hatred.

The fey lords and their kingdoms were quick to align with one or another of the sisters. They were just as quick to strike an opposing lord for any slight given. Ballroom scuffles gave way to brawls. Brawls escalated to skirmishes, skirmishes to battles. Within another century, an entire nation was at war with itself.

The battles of Men, even the savagery of the Beastman Crusades, paled in comparison to the sidhe at war. The magics loosed in the Mage Wars was as a candle against the inferno that the sidhe could command.

A nation that had spanned an entire continent was reduced to tiny pockets among what woodlands were left.

And then the Men came, to fill the gap.

Among those Men, which the fey watched with an intense curiosity, arose one bloodline untouched by the warped magics of the sisters’ war. And after the men had learned the secrets of fire, iron, and steel, did the Titania of the Northern courts, the queen of the so-called Twilight Empire in the North, make her move, to solidify a union that would enable her to at last crush her twin in the south.

The fair queen of the Sommersfei was not so easily undone, and when Uther traveled to the Great Empire for his schooling, she saw her change to strike, and to close the bargain he’d opened with her sister in the North.

As insurance, she also journeyed into the cold North, setting in place a number of contingencies, forging alliances with those aligned against her hated sister’s beloved beleaguered barony.

One such alliance was with the savage raiders known as the Skandaharians.

[ripvanwormer]

1. He works for the Egg of Coot out of what he perceives as rational self-interest, not madness or mind control. As long as the Egg continues to provide him with what he wants, the alliance will continue, but Moorkok could easily turn against the Egg if he deemed the Egg no longer worthy of his service.
2. The Egg knows this and considers Moorkok to be useful for the time being, but expendable.
3. As one of the few servants of the Egg neither brainwashed nor mad, Moorkok is the Egg's current ambassador to the Lower Planes, where he bargains with the lower powers for balrogs and other fiends to use in the Egg's armies. An adventure could involve disrupting a trade summit in the netherworld.

[Havard]

1. He works for the Egg of Coot out of what he perceives as rational self-interest, not madness or mind control. As long as the Egg continues to provide him with what he wants, the alliance will continue, but Moorkok could easily turn against the Egg if he deemed the Egg no longer worthy of his service.
2. The Egg knows this and considers Moorkok to be useful for the time being, but expendable.
3. As one of the few servants of the Egg neither brainwashed nor mad, Moorkok is the Egg's current ambassador to the Lower Planes, where he bargains with the lower powers for balrogs and other fiends to use in the Egg's armies. An adventure could involve disrupting a trade summit in the netherworld.

Some great ideas here. I love the idea of the Egg having an ambassador to the Lower Planes in order to get his Balrog/Demon recruits!

-Havard