Why is the necromancer in the swamp?

[Armored Walrus]

Like the title says.

The necromancer lives on a small island in the swamp. The island is composed (or decomposed) of the rotting remains of undead alligators, lizardfolk, troglodytes, fish, and other denizens of the swamp who've crossed her path in the past. The island moves around the swamp of its own accord (or maybe it's directed by her for some nefarious purpose).

Why is she there? What does she gain from the swamp? What does her daily routine look like? What kind of defenses would she have? What flavorful magical item does she possess that helps her maintain this lifestyle?

She's a level 5 necromancer, BTW.

[Eko]

Cloistered scholars tend to set up shop in places where nature manifests their art. An evocation wizard would hide out in a volcano, where fire takes form. An illusionist could situate himself in a dense forest, where shifting shadows bring shapes alive. And our necromancer would locate herself in a swamp, where the cycle of life, death, decay, and rebirth is always ongoing.

Being there enforces her will to do what she does, and possibly even enhances it. Perhaps the decaying nature of the swamp solicits necrotic energy within the Weave, empowering the necromancer's spells.

As to her daily routine, that really depends on what she's trying to achieve. She certainly does not hunt - she is either sustained by magical means or has her minions hunt for her.

A scepter of animal domination could be something she uses. It goes against everything the Druid stands for - whereas the Druid befriends the animals of the wilderness, this necromancer would subject them to be her slaves. I would presume that dominion over animal slaves would be easier to maintain than dominion over humanoid slaves, so she can have quite a few of these around. Alligators are especially deadly, but poisonous snakes/frogs, flesh-eating fish, and nasty disease-bearing rodents could also work.

[Hooligan]

Why is she there? Sinning and getting high. Bootlegging.
What does she gain from the swamp? Damp clothes. Eczema. Hobo wine.
What does her daily routine look like? Arise, get high, make dirt, sin, Depeche Mode, scheme, sin, Lunch, wipe, Animate Dead, get high, boyfriend/girlfriend pillow, Read Deathly Hallows pt 1, sleep.
What kind of defenses would she have? Odor, the ewok log things, piercings.
What flavorful magical item does she possess that helps her maintain this lifestyle? Otiluke's Dirty Dispensary, Bag of Holding Your Liquor, Mordenkainen's Water Pipe

[Armored Walrus]

As to her daily routine, that really depends on what she's trying to achieve.

That's kinda what I'm trying to work out. Why's she there? What's she trying to accomplish?

Not world-domination. Not yet, at 5th level.
Raise an undead army? Well, she made her island, and presumably undead are guarding it as well. But all she's seemingly used it for is to meander around the swamp.
Perfect her art? Sure - how do I convey this to the PCs with a little scenery and window-dressing? They aren't likely to interview her; any ideas what "perfecting her art" looks like?

Here's a little more info - the PCs need a thing from her. Not necessarily a thing she even cares about, but she happens to have it and they happen to need it. I don't know if they'll do a heist, try to negotiate, SEAL Team Six the place, or just try to burn it down and sift through the ashes. But that island will be most of next session so I want to have some logic that holds this set piece together; some motivations for her in case they try to talk their way through this, etc.

[Finieous]

The villagers burned her alive and, thinking her dead, threw her body in the swamp.

(h/t Anne Rice)

"But now the lights of the city lay behind us, and its mingled scents were drowned in the thick odor of swamp decay. The very sight of the tall, wavering trees, their limbs hung with moss, had sickened me, made me think of Lestat. I was thinking of him as I'd thought of my brother's body. I was seeing him sunk deep among the roots of cypress and oak, that hideous withered form folded in the white sheet. I wondered if the creatures of the dark shunned him, knowing instinctively the parched, crackling thing there was virulent, or whether they swarmed about him in the reeking water, picking his ancient dried flesh from his bones." -- Interview with the Vampire

[Naanomi]

To tap it for Black Mana?

[Armored Walrus]

The villagers burned her alive and, thinking her dead, threw her body in the swamp.

I might be able to build on that.


So now she's pretty much insane, and relives that night every night.

So now she's researching a way to give her island a single consciousness, so it can rise up and attack as one being.

So now she's become a recluse, crushed by self-hatred because the villagers had every right to destroy her and her evilness. She's just trying to bring herself to end it, and will attack on sight in the hopes that the party will overwhelm her.

So now she's got religion, and all the creatures she's reanimated have been attempts to learn true resurrection, but, sadly, she still approaches the issue with an academician's approach. She's eschewed divine magic, and assumes there is a way to replicate the priest's magic via arcane means. She's coldly, clinically, compassionate.

[Armored Walrus]

To tap it for Black Mana?

How much did WOTC pay you for that cross-platform plug? :P

[tmjr6]

She could be working on a type of curse for her island, starting in the swamp and slowly increasing its power until she can increase its range. Something like an extreme version of Hallow only instead any creature that dies in it rises as an undead creature under her control. As she experiments her army grows and she begins to move it in a larger radius until the entire island, or whatever else she wants, is under her control.

[Sigreid]

A necromancer would likely be in the swamp because they can do their thing there without being persecuted. If you try to build up your undead army or simply explore the true nature of death in town, or on on the outskirts of town, you'll likely find yourself on the wrong side of a witch hunt before you are ready. Go be the crazy lady in the swamp, the villagers may have their suspicions about you, but how many are really going to go into the dangerous swamp to find out whether you are more dangerous than the swamp?

[Pex]

Isolation.

Troubling a local village causes the townspeople to hire pesky adventurers to interfere. In the swamp she is left alone. Adventurers don't voluntarily go into a swamp unless they're just passing through. As long as she doesn't adversely disturb communities on the border of the swamp no one will care. Rumors might spread of a witch or hag in the swamp but only as a warning to keep away. Don't bother her she won't bother you. The rare adventuring party who does seek her out are only doing so to get information she may have. An annoying interference but useful to get them to run a dangerous errand she needs done like get a rare plant where a monster dwells or perhaps the corpse of the monster itself.

[90sMusic]

Like the title says.

The necromancer lives on a small island in the swamp. The island is composed (or decomposed) of the rotting remains of undead alligators, lizardfolk, troglodytes, fish, and other denizens of the swamp who've crossed her path in the past. The island moves around the swamp of its own accord (or maybe it's directed by her for some nefarious purpose).

Why is she there? What does she gain from the swamp? What does her daily routine look like? What kind of defenses would she have? What flavorful magical item does she possess that helps her maintain this lifestyle?

She's a level 5 necromancer, BTW.

As far as why she is there, as well as "flavorful magical items" she might have, I would say that she sought out the swamp because she wanted seclusion. It is difficult to practice your necromancy in the middle of a populated area where every Johnny B Good is trying to kill you because you're meddling with death. She probably just wanted a remote, isolated place to practice her craft. I'd fill her location with books (or at least one book) on ways to create, control, manipulate undead. Perhaps even old journals on how they behave without instruction or experiments done on how much of their former lives they remember, things like that.

As far as defenses, that is pretty easy. You said she lives on a literal pile of animated corpses. Seems to me that is ample defense in and of it's self, just have their hands, mouths, whatever, reach out from the ground as soon as they step on it. I certainly wouldn't want to walk on such a surface where the ground was literally trying to grab you and pull you into one of it's many waiting mouths. Maybe the island it's self is a new type of undead, a type of abomination formed from so many bodies being merged together and the various pieces of former creatures no longer need to stay attached in the same way they were in life. Those alligator heads could just pop up anywhere for instance.

Her daily routine is probably very simplistic. Waking up, eating, probably very ill prepared food, might send out some type of undead to hunt some animals for her like rabbits or squirrels. Could've made a type of cage out of wood or maybe even metal and attached it inside the creature's ribcage to hold whatever prey it catches in it's jaws and "swallows". Then have it return to her to be prepared. Rest of her day is a mix up between reading up on the wealth of undead lore and knowledge she has, and actually practicing it or experimenting with her minions.

Her ultimate motivations can vary depending on the type of character you want her to be. Maybe it's a tragic story and she is trying to bring her father back from the dead who can't be revived through traditional means of resurrection due to having died of old age. Maybe she wants to one day exact revenge against everyone who ever doubted her and didn't believe she could ever learn magic. Maybe she's just a nerd that loves learning, researching, and knowing all things and decided the only way to live long enough to learn everything and master all forms of magic is to begin with necromancy and achieve immortality through undeath. Then she'll have eternity to pursue her other goals. I mean, it can be as evil, tragic, twisted, or whatever as you want.


Perfect her art? Sure - how do I convey this to the PCs with a little scenery and window-dressing? They aren't likely to interview her; any ideas what "perfecting her art" looks like?

The best way to show this without telling it is to show experimentation. Let them discover failed experiments of creatures she tried piecing together or combining bone and flesh with non-traditional materials like wood, stone, metal, etc. Have some of these creatures be functional but weak, showcasing she managed to succeed in her experimentation with some but still too weak to be useful. Perhaps you could have a boss battle with one of her successful creations.

And if you really need to tell it without telling it, you can just have her keep a diary they can read that'll spell it out for them, but I always find discovery and player hypotheses are more fun.

[Fey]

To get to the "Other Side."

[LaserFace]

Like the title says.

The necromancer lives on a small island in the swamp. The island is composed (or decomposed) of the rotting remains of undead alligators, lizardfolk, troglodytes, fish, and other denizens of the swamp who've crossed her path in the past. The island moves around the swamp of its own accord (or maybe it's directed by her for some nefarious purpose).

Why is she there? What does she gain from the swamp? What does her daily routine look like? What kind of defenses would she have? What flavorful magical item does she possess that helps her maintain this lifestyle?

She's a level 5 necromancer, BTW.

The Necromancer studies life and death. A swamp is filled with all manner of plants and animals that can provide rich knowledge to someone willing to muck around in the thick of it. You have plenty of test subjects for experimentation (which probably nobody will bother you about going missing), and any mishaps won't be near enough to civilization as to harm innocent people or draw the ire of disapproving authorities.

She's maybe there to further master her craft in seclusion, surrounded by useful resources. Perhaps she is working toward a specific goal, such as immortality, or maybe she's just trying to make cool undead servants. Recently disturbed grounds and signs of rituals all over the swamp could indicate to the party she's doing stuff.

A routine would probably have to include collecting food from around the swamp; not sure what manner of crop she'd cultivate, but maybe a deep understanding of wildlife could provide a means to sustain herself rather well. She'd probably gather alchemical components along the way. I imagine traps for small rodents, peeling back the bark on rotten trees in search for bugs, grabbing weird-looking mushrooms and berries could all be part of this. Maybe the PCs can find areas where these things have obviously been harvested to show her activity (perhaps a trap actually has an animal stuck in it).

Undead minions would probably be her first line of defense. Although, maybe intelligent beings could be used to give a first warning of potential threats entering the area; maybe a familiar, or just a pact with other inhabitants of the swamp would work. She might use some abjurations or illusions to protect her home and the island it stands upon. Maybe arcane traps that curse trespassers.

Her magic item could be an Alchemy Jug (DMG p.150), which is pretty nifty and is probably very useful for a mage in her situation. Alternatively, she might carry around a Bag of Beans (p.153) for their various magic effects, a Bag of Devouring and/or a Bag of Holding for utility, a Figurine of Wondrous Power (p.169) for defense, Goggles of Night if she's human and does a lot of night walks, or Pipes of the Sewers (p.185) for her Lab Rats.

[Nidgit]

The swamp happens to contain a couple tar pits and the necromancer has been excavating them (through undead labor, of course) in hopes of discovering and reanimating ancient creatures. You could make one of them an enemy if a fight breaks out.

She doesn't consider her work to be evil so she's only got undead guards and maybe an illusion or two up to keep people from disturbing her. Two undead guards are also posted at each excavation site.

For subsistence, she has a contact in town whom she pays to bring her food. She purifies swamp water herself.

As far as magic items go, she has a Homebrew needle and spool of thread with a powerful Mending enchantment. The needle and thread restore an object or series of objects to their previous configuration, which she uses to reconstruct skeletons accurately. She also has Eyes of Minute Seeing for research and Winged Boots to help move around the swamp uninhibited.

[Findulidas]

Maybe there are close by ruins of some type of civilization that used necromancy a lot (sarrukhs or whatever) and hes trying to learn from them.

[Foxhound438]

To tap it for Black Mana?

Settle for nothing less than Urborg when planning your necromantic real estate purchase, complete with a cabal coffers for amplified mana production!

[StoicLeaf]

You say the necro is level 5 but you don't state how long she's been 5.
At 5 you acquire animate dead.

Perhaps she spent all her time in the swamp learning how to animate the dead.
Swamps will provide fresh corpses at a regular rate, all she has to do is float around on her island, gather them up and do her experiments.

Perhaps now that the necro can raise the dead, she's playing with it.
Much to the local villagers dismay, as she often forgets to destroy the undead she creates, and once she loses control over them they head out into the world killing anything that's living.

[Beelzebubba]

The swamp is covering over the graveyard of a long-dead city, and that land underneath has been slowly rising for hundreds of years. The dead are now just below the surface and calling out to be risen again.

[Armored Walrus]

Thanks for the responses, folks. Plenty here for me to work with!

[smcmike]

Necromancer + Swamp makes me think of bog bodies - sacrificial victims (often, maybe?), who were dumped in the peat bogs and preserved there for thousands of years. Sort of a northern version of mummies. I don't know if there is a way to incorporate that into your idea, but thought I'd throw it out there.

[KorvinStarmast]

Why is she there? Sinning and getting high. Bootlegging.
-snip much from the post of goodness-
What flavorful magical item does she possess that helps her maintain this lifestyle? Otiluke's Dirty Dispensary, Bag of Holding Your Liquor, Mordenkainen's Water Pipe That last entry in particular got me chortling. :smallbiggrin: In this case, a bong in a bog means "bog = swamp" not the Brit version of "bog = privy."

[Spore]

The necromancer is in a place where corpses don't rot and are handily available for experiments.

[tieren]

Theres a lost yuanti temple in the swamp which is hiding a tome of ancient magic which will help her unlock a ritual which will greatly increase her power.

She been trying to get into the temple for years, but the monsters which inhabit it are to much for her. Shes been making more and more undead animal minions to try to do it for her but has not yet been successful.

So she travels the swamp seeking out the largest corpses, greatest alligators, wayward heroes, etc... to turn into her minions which she can then throw at the temple.

Of course if the party would willingly retrieve the tome for her she wouldn't need to murder and convert them and wouldn't that just be to everyone's advantage.

[Hooligan]

Like the title says.

The necromancer lives on a small island in the swamp. The island is composed (or decomposed) of the rotting remains of undead alligators, lizardfolk, troglodytes, fish, and other denizens of the swamp who've crossed her path in the past. The island moves around the swamp of its own accord (or maybe it's directed by her for some nefarious purpose).

Why is she there? What does she gain from the swamp? What does her daily routine look like? What kind of defenses would she have? What flavorful magical item does she possess that helps her maintain this lifestyle?

She's a level 5 necromancer, BTW.

Forgive my fun, in earnest this time.

Why? I actually think an interesting reason for her being in the swamp is that she is a bootlegger. It's private to begin with and unless there are trogs/lizardmen/black dragons about, it's not likely to become otherwise...if there are, well so much the better for our dm :)

What does she gain? see 1st answer, plus a potential source of bodies + a place to freely practice her necromancy. I imagine she also has a manservant; Hob lets call him.....or maybe Drizzzzzzzt....on second thought let's stick to Hob. Hob is her man through and through. He serves several very useful purposes:
-He occasionally puts it about that "trouble" is afoot in the swamp; only so much as to rarely send a trickle of guards/soldiers/adventurers Her way when she should require more bodies.
-He acts as her salesman/fence for distributing the bootleg liquor.
-He obtains necessary materials, supplies, and foodstuffs for the Necromancer, so she needn't go leave the swamp for anything.
-Is the plot thread, directly or indirectly, that might guide the PCs towards the swamp and necromancer.

What defenses?
-Ferocious Necrodiles.
-Perhaps a group of lizardmen or trogs she has cowed/succored.
-Ghoul tribes who she feeds and in return defend her/furnish her with living meat.
-A group of mercenaries in town/city who serve her interests, maintain her anonymity, and ensure her product reaches the market safely.
-The malleable nature of her island (which presumably she can move) and the swamp itself, making it difficult for all but expert trackers and her retinue to navigate.
-Caches of zombies/skeletons that she has submerged in the swamp to rise at her command and take her enemies at unawares.
-pockets of swamp gas, which could have any number of effects: explosions or poison most readily suggest themselves.

What magic item?
Given the nonsense I've spun above, I think the most practical would be a means of telepathically communicating with Hob +/- something to control the fogs & mists of the swamp.

[NecroDancer]

Maybe the necromancer has some disease and a particular plant in the swamp keeps them alive. This could also explain why they are a necromancer, they want to study life and death to help find a cure by any means.

[Sigreid]

If you want to keep it simple, where else is the weirdo into playing with dead bodies going to hang out?

[Braininthejar2]

A moving island, you say? She couldn't have made it herself at her level.

So she has clearly found the former base of a more powerful predecessor. - most of his stuff has been taken by whoever killed him, but the island is still intact and probably worth a fortune - she's trying to learn how it works, while using monsters to keep the competition away - sadly, this has the opposite effect, as it attracts adventurers.

[Armored Walrus]

A moving island, you say? She couldn't have made it herself at her level.

Yeah, that occurred to me today. I'm thinking there is a magic item involved. Or some natural phenomenon endemic to the swamp. Or some greater evil in the swamp that is amplifying or altering her ability.

[Honest Tiefling]

Because where else would you stash an island of rotting corpses? It's not going to travel overland very well, so plains, forests, and mountains are all out. A river or the sea would have currents that are too strong and might threaten to rip off bits of your island.

Also, there could be the issue that the island doesn't have any access to feasible waterways and she found the island in the swamp. Sure, that swamp might be connected to a river, but rivers mean traffic, and traffic mean people who will get highly upset at people riding bodies down major trade routes. And sure, a level 5 necromancer could deal with a few people here and there, but if you want peace and quiet to study, you probably shouldn't advertise your necromantic arts.