Marcellius of Tangor and The Dog Duke

[Havard]

More than 500 years ago, the Barony of Blackmoor was ruled by a man whose name was Bruadaire, but who would be known as the Dog Duke. When Brudaire was a young man, he attended studies at the University of Mohacs, in the Thonian Capital, just like young Uther Andahar would do centuries later. While living in Thonia, Bruadaire befriended a man named Marcellius. Marcellius went on to pursue a military career, gaining fame and glory in the conquest of the southern lands of the dark skinned Bolgers. These lands, the Jungles of Tangor, were the same lands where Lord Balfred of Blackmoor, much would capture his Jungle Beast. Because of his valiant military merits in those lands, the young man became known as Marcellius of Tangor.

When Marcellius learned that his friend Bruadaire had been promoted to Lord of Blackmoor, Marcellius travelled north to assist the young Baron. Arriving in Blackmoor Castle, Marcellius soon encountered Baron Bruadaire’s court wizard, Master Graelwende, a man Marcellius instantly disliked. Fortunately, the wizard normally practiced his magic in a deep pit outside the castle so they did not have to meet often.

Marcellius and the Baron went on many adventures together, exploring the wilderness surrounding Blackmoor. At this time, the realm was covered by deep forests and the land had not begun sinking. At this time, Uhlmar was still king of the elves, and an ally to the people of Blackmoor. Marcellius and the Baron became close friends of the elves and when the Barony was threatened, the elves would always come to assistance. It was Uhlmar who warned the Baron that a new threat was on the rise. An evil, called the Cult of Id. The elven king proposed that the humans and elves would join forces and strike before the Cult became too powerful. The Thonian Emperor did not want Blackmoor to become involved in this situation however, considering it an elven affair. The Thonian Court disliked the idea of spending time with elves in general as they considered humans to be above all other races.

Still, the plans were already in motion and the Baron sent Marcellius ahead to let King Uhlmar know that his forces were on their way. However as Baron Bruadaire was about to lead his knights into battle, he learned the true nature of his court wizard. Master Graelwende, an agent of the Thonian Emperor, worked his magic, preventing the Baron to come to King Uhlmar’s aid. The Wizard’s spell forced Bruadaire to watch while hundreds of elves were slaughtered. Marcellius was the only human to fight alongside Uhlmar’s forces and tears ran from Bruadaire’s eyes as he stood immobilized watching his friend from youth be slain by the poisoned arrows of Id. Uhlmar was victorius in this battle and the Cult of Id was defeated. But the victory had cost the elves dearly, and the king would never forgive the humans of their treachery.
Finally free of the spell, Baron Bruadaire let his wrath rain down on Master Graelwende. He dragged the beaten Master back to Blackmoor and tossed him into the Wizard’s Pit where he had the Pit sealed, locking the wizard to his place of study until the day he died. But this punishment would not bring his friend back and Baron Bruadaire would spend the rest of his days in grief, cursing the day the wizard’s magic had turned him into a dog on a leash. Marcelluis and Bruadaire were both buried in Blackmoor Castle’s Hall of Heroes, where they still haunt the chambers to this day.

Behind the Curtains:
• Marcellius and the Dog Duke are mentioned in the FFC
• The Dog Duke is possibly a reference to the Mascot of James Madison University
• My version of Marcellius is in part based on Marcellus of Tangier
• The decision of placing the era of the Dog Duke to the year 500 is my own as I wanted to link it to the other events in that time as seen above.

-Havard

[Havard]

No comments on this? To clarify, the point of this writeup is to detail the ruler of Blackmoor around the year 500. I chose the Dog Duke for this era for various reasons. I am also looking to expand on other rulers, but the time around 500 strikes me as interesting, as it is the time of the War with Id, the time when the elves break into two groups etc.

IMC, this is also the time when Beastmen, Orcs, Goblins etc first begin to appear in the North. I assume that the most common threats prior to this would be Giants, Trolls and Neanderthals as well as less intelligent monsters (Giant Animals, Dinosaurs etc). Lizardmen would also likely have been more numerous back then.

-Havard

[aldarron]

No comments on this?
-Havard

It took a while, but I'm really warming to this story. I'm thinking the Wizard er, whats is name, Greywindow ( :lol: ) could have polymorphed all the dukes soldiers, not just the duke, at the start of the battle. Like the scene in Willow, where Bavmorda turns everybody into pigs. There's also that bit in the Odyssey.

How did you come up with the name for the Duke?

Now, for the timeline I'm working on I would alter the story a bit as follows:

- The Duke is alarmed at the growth of the Id faction. Perhaps family memebers have joined the cult.
- If The Wizards Cabal exists at this time, perhaps the believe they can control and make use of the cult. They warn the Duke not to take any action against them.
- Unable to call the northern lords to arms, the Duke begins secret negotiations with Uhlmar and the elves.
- The Dukes personal forces (a few hundred?) and the armies of the Elves mount a joint surprise attack on the Temple of Id.
- Gruewimper (er spelling again) the Wizard (High Spellwise?) is either sent to teach the Duke a lesson (if the Cabal is involved) or is himself a secret convert to ID, and Polymorphs him and his men into dogs.
- The Dukes "men" run off, leaveing the elves to face Id alone.
- The Cabal does not interfere futher in the battle, because it is to thier advantage to have the elves suffer losses. They "win" either way.
- Though transformed, the Duke refuses to leave the battle.
- Marcellius throws himself on top of the duke during a hail of poison arrows and is killed, trasforming back to human and pinning the Duke for the rest of the battle.

[Havard]

No comments on this?
-Havard

It took a while, but I'm really warming to this story. I'm thinking the Wizard er, whats is name, Greywindow ( :lol: ) could have polymorphed all the dukes soldiers, not just the duke, at the start of the battle. Like the scene in Willow, where Bavmorda turns everybody into pigs. There's also that bit in the Odyssey.

Hey, no making fun of names! :x

The Willow scene idea is fun and could very well work

How did you come up with the name for the Duke?

The names for the Duke and Wizard were made up in the following way: I took a name from the D20 book and combined it with a name from a list of Anglo-Saxon names I found somewhere on the Internet. I like the Anglo-Saxon names because they seem fairly exotic to me, and almost have a Tolkienesque feel to them. The Thonian names in the D20 sourcebook feel too modern sounding IMO, but I like using them as a starting point. The names are non-canonical, but the titles ("Dog Duke") and characters are from the FFC. Interestingly some rulers are referred to as Dukes and others as barons. My theory is that Blackmoor early on was a Duchy, but after the Bloody Duke, it was reduced to a Barony under the Earldom of Vestfold.

Now, for the timeline I'm working on I would alter the story a bit as follows:

- The Duke is alarmed at the growth of the Id faction. Perhaps family memebers have joined the cult.
- If The Wizards Cabal exists at this time, perhaps the believe they can control and make use of the cult. They warn the Duke not to take any action against them.
- Unable to call the northern lords to arms, the Duke begins secret negotiations with Uhlmar and the elves.
- The Dukes personal forces (a few hundred?) and the armies of the Elves mount a joint surprise attack on the Temple of Id.
- Gruewimper (er spelling again) the Wizard (High Spellwise?) is either sent to teach the Duke a lesson (if the Cabal is involved) or is himself a secret convert to ID, and Polymorphs him and his men into dogs.
- The Dukes "men" run off, leaveing the elves to face Id alone.
- The Cabal does not interfere futher in the battle, because it is to thier advantage to have the elves suffer losses. They "win" either way.
- Though transformed, the Duke refuses to leave the battle.
- Marcellius throws himself on top of the duke during a hail of poison arrows and is killed, trasforming back to human and pinning the Duke for the rest of the battle.

Its a pretty good summary of the events. Even if the Wizards Cabal did not exist as by canon, I think it would still be common for lords to have court wizards. My original idea was that the wizard was working for the Emperor who wanted to see the elves fail, but I also like your suggestion that the wizard could be an Id Cultist, or perhaps even that the Emperor could be an Id Cultist. It really depends on how you see the Empire at the time. The empire was on multiple occasions in history a supporter of Blackmoor, so it would be wrong to categorize them as always evil IMO.

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

I'm thinking the Wizard er, whats is name, Greywindow ( :lol: ) could have polymorphed all the dukes soldiers, not just the duke, at the start of the battle. Like the scene in Willow, where Bavmorda turns everybody into pigs. There's also that bit in the Odyssey.

I totally love the Homeric reference, but being this the Dog Duke maybe is more appropriate to turn him into a dog (and his men as well, why not?).
Unless there is a better explanation of the Dog Duke thingy...

If I were Havard, I'd write a small adventure module around this...;-)

[Yaztromo]

...then another one could follow around the discovery of Graelwende last home... :wink:

[Havard]

Skandaharian discussion split into a separate topic here: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=7915



-Havard

[Havard]

I totally love the Homeric reference, but being this the Dog Duke maybe is more appropriate to turn him into a dog (and his men as well, why not?). Unless there is a better explanation of the Dog Duke thingy...

If I were Havard, I'd write a small adventure module around this...;-)

...then another one could follow around the discovery of Graelwende last home... :wink:

The Staff of Graelwende does appear in the Vales Campaign, which was a small nod to this thread.

Other ideas for adventures based on this story?

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

I thought about this issue, and maybe it's better to have only the Duke turned into a dog and kept on a leash (collar of taming or similar?) while his men, in absence of the Duke, run away, or maybe the soldiers are all turned into dogs as well and run away from the battlefield, apart from Marcellius that fought as a dog and turned back into Marcellius after his death... still unsure about what could be the best... what do your think?


PS for the adventure ideas, maybe it's better that we have a chat by PM...

[Yaztromo]

The more I read this write up, the more I like it.