Knights of the North - Adventure Two

Option One:
The Iron Circle

Adventure Two

Brainstorming

What if I took Reavers of Harkenwold and set it around Phlan?

What if the Iron Circle wasn't a new power group but, rather, a front for the Zhentarim?

What if the job of the Iron Circle was to, as it were, surround Phlan with strife and provide the conditions for Phlan to accept Zhent protection?

What if this was also to show Phlan that the Banites were too weak to protect the city and its outlying farms?

And that would also mean I could run a published adventure with minimal preparation on my own part. Cool.

Is there a link between the Iron Circle and the pirates of the Moonsea?

How does this tie into my plans for a portal network centred on Bane's Eye beneath the Ruins of Zhentil Keep?

Option Two:
The Red Claw Siege

Adventure Two

Brainstorming

What if I combined Red Hand of Doom with The Speaker in Dreams and added some flavour from the Shadows of the Abyss trilogy?

 

Essentially, Banites from Mulmaster have manipulated the Banite Red Claw goblins of Thar into laying siege to Phlan. While the goblins are at the gate, so to speak, there is a fifth column within: traitorous clerics of Bane within the Lyceum of the Black Lord. Their presence is undermining the effectiveness of the Black Watch.

The Lord Protector is of little use as he has been possessed by Tyranthraxus.

The goals of the PCs are as follows:

1. Free the Lord Protector from Tyranthraxus.

2. Uncover and defeat the Banite traitors within the Lyceum of the Black Lord.

3. Break through the siege lines and defeat the Red Claw commanders and their Banite advisors from Mulmaster.

 

It may be that the harbour is also blocked by pirate ships. The PCs could potentially capture one of the ships and use it to sail out of Phlan so they can circle around and attack the Red Claw goblins from the rear.

 

In Monster Vault: Threats of the Nentir Vale there is a picture of a siege tower that looks like a dragon. Perhaps the Red Claw are using such a tower as a mobile headquarters?

Knights of the North - NPC: Ixathinon, aka Lady Avrezt

Ixathinon

 aka Lady Avrezt, Tolak of Darkhold

Roleplaying Ixathinon
Key Traits: ambitious, ruthless
Goal: regain the power he had, rebuild the Zhentarim
Motivation: bad childhood
Fears: beholders seem too powerful, he feels out-of-his-depth in this post-Spellplague age
Weaknesses: none

Favourite Sayings
These are always uttered in a soft, pleasant, matter-of-fact voice:

"I can't be bothered wasting spells on them. Hang them, for the citizens to watch."
"These conclusions need bother us?"
"And the approach you prefer?"
"How deeply touching. Slay them."
"I fear so."
"A moment, good sir, of the brief time - by my command - remaining to you."
"Shall I decree it, or are you sensitive enough to heed a mere suggestion?"
"You'll understand, I trust, that as long as I am Lord here, I can allow no diabolical plans to succeed but my own."

Inspiration

Ixathinon believes its destiny is to fill the void left by Manxam's death. Manxam was described as follows:

Possibly the most powerful eye tyrant in the lands of the northwest Inner Sea, Manxam does deal in the politics of humans, but with a low profile and few servant creatures.

Manxam is usually to be found in or about the ruins of Teshwave. It is thought to view the Zhentarim’'s bold expansionist policies with increasing alarm, thinking that they will lead to an inevitable battle union of all of Zhentil Keep'’s foes and the resulting defeat and destruction of Zhentil Keep. Still, it sees the Zhentarim as (relatively) trustworthy allies.

Beholders have allied with evil forces such as those within Zhentil Keep for aeons. Manxam is less than pleased with Manshoon'’s dominance of the inner circle, and prefers Fzoul'’s firm hand (the beholder misses the old days of the Bane-worshipping priests, who seemed to know how to treat beholders with the respect they deserved). Still, the Zhentarim are preferable to the madmen of
the Dales, who always seek to rebel under the eye of the more powerful beholders.

Manxam'’s powers and abilities are unknown, but a doubling of “normal” beholder hit points would not be unreasonable to begin with.

This is exactly how Ixathinon sees itself... and also how it sees the Zhentarim. It wants the Zhentarim "back", an organisation with its own goals but ultimately a pawn of beholders like itself and, in due course, the sword that the beholders of Ixathinon's hive will point toward the Netherese in their quest for vengeance.

Background 

Manshoon, Night King of Westgate and leader of the Zhents, is slain in spell-battle with Elminster.
Awakened clone.
Beholder mage - Ixathinon - did the awakening.
Finds he is working with Cyricists instead of Banites.
Citadel of the Raven is a ruin not the mighty fortress he expected.
Shortcut to increased magical power - tap the magic of the spellweavers who have ruins in this region.
This is Manshoon from 1355 DR but less powerful than even at that time due to the weaker clone ritual used to create him.

Stat Block
Manshoon

Male human arcanist wizard 12

Evil elite controller (leader) 12

Magic Missile - basic ranged

Lightning bolt - ranged at-will

Dominate Monster- recharge when nobody affected

Mind Crush/Feeblemind - encounter

Wall of Force - encounter

Dimension Door - recharge

Summoned Bone Devils

Evil lurker 9

Fimbulwinter (?) - The Return of Manshoon

The Last Clone

I'm back!

Deep in the ruins of the Citadel of the Raven is the last remaining stasis clone of Manshoon, the founder of the Zhentarim and former First Lord of Zhentil Keep.

This clone has remain untouched by the Spellplague - and was immune to the massive awakening that preceded the Clone Wars - as its magic was tied to the portal leading to the extra-dimensional space where it was secreted.

There is a faction within the Zhentarim that believes that if the Zhents are to return to greatness, Manshoon must be the one to lead them. They feel that there is something --wrong-- with the current Manshoon and so they have been researching the locations of his other clones for years hoping to find another Manshoon to lead them.

From the journal of a noted Zhent mage loyal to Manshoon recovered from the ruins of Zhentil Keep, they finally have the clues they need to locate the last remaining clone from an extra-dimensional space within the ruins of the Citadel of the Raven. Now all they need is the portal key....

(I could also use this same general background for a clone of Manshoon secreted in the dungeons beneath Darkhold. Perhaps I could use this for my Dark Weavings campaign instead?)

Manshoon is Dead; Long Live Manshoon!

Another option is to have Manshoon the Night King slain by adventurers off-screen, as it were. Zhents encountered in the campaign could actually be looking for one of his clones in order to replace him. A weaker clone might be seen as a way for an ambitious Zhent black cloak to increase his or her own influence in the organisation with the black cloak believing that the weaker Manshoon can be their pawn.


More food for thought....


(I also rather like the idea of a campaign set in Loudwater and the Fallen Lands where the Zhents have gone to the Sceptre Tower of Spellgarde to ask Lady Spellgarde just where they can find one of Manshoon's clones!)

General Comments

Manshoon is one of those characters who has been harshly dealt with by various RPG and novel authors, largely because of the old TSR policy that evil could never be seen to be successful.

If you read Ed Greenwood's comments about Manshoon over at Candlekeep, it is clear that Ed saw him as a true master villain. That's the Manshoon I want to include in one or more of my games at some point.

I don't like the idea of Manshoon as a vampire. Actually, it's not so much that I don't like it as I prefer the idea of more than one clone still running around. And Manshoon the Night King is both too high in level for my preferred campaign levels and I don't like the whole notion of Stormkeep. It's too high magic for the sort of game I want to run. (Yes, there is a certain irony in rejecting high magic when my preferred campaign setting is Forgotten Realms.)

Suffice to say, I want to bring Manshoon back but as a lower-level protagonist and as someone who has the potential to make the Zhentarim a force in the Moonsea again. Manshoon the Night King can have Darkhold and the Western Heartlands; "my" Manshoon wants the Moonsea....