Puns & Nuns

[Phantom.exe]

Well, no nuns. But puns, without a doubt.

Okay, I have a few adventure modules I run frequently. By that, I mean that I've DM'd them twice before (I have two groups that run similar adventures in the same cocurrent Eberron universe) and I'm going home from college. I'm seeing some old people and I'd love to run them again.

The issue ?

Well, there are 2 big antagonists- the evil Victor Saint-Demain, Sharn's best master inquisitive and the Sherlock Holmes of the Eberron world. He's an arrogant bastard, but he's got 8 levels in swashbuckler and -

I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm running the Victor Saint-Demain trilogy consisting of Chimes at Midnight, Quoth the Raven, and Hell's Heart.

All three are mysteries and EXTREMELY pulpy.

Long story short, I'm trying to find the best way to play Victor. He's an arrogant prick, and he's intelligent, too - did I mention arrogant? I figure a few 'cutting remarks' would be best. I want him to be a talkative guy, just as happy to trade words as trade blows with his ridiculous rapier.

The other character I need a few tips on running is the Raven. Corbin Elridge is a serial killer, demented and mad, who uses the guise of a raven as his identity. A literary soul, he writes - quite a bit - and sends it into newspapers as threats. And stuff.

Well, he's got a very Poe feel to him, and I need some intellectual dialog with him as well.

[OneFamiliarFace]

Victor Saint-Demain:

This might take too much of your time, but picking up Sherlock Holmes complete works might help. There isn't much evil that comes out of his mouth, but he has a few repeated quotes which can either be stolen verbatim or twisted about to provide a more evil bent.

You can even give him some of Holmes' legendary drive. When Mr. Saint-Demain is on a case/trail, he often does not eat or sleep, tightening his net about his opponent at each moment. Alternatively, he may be an excitement junky (as was Holmes), so when he is not on a case, he may indulge himself on various stimulants or narcotics, while complaining about how boring and mundane everything is.

In fact, Holmes is a great frame for a villain. He often says himself that were he to be a criminal, then London would have much to fear. People around him (and even Watson) often find him to be almost inhuman. He rarely shows any emotion, is quite arrogant about his methods, and impassionately reviews grisly murder scenes.

I would recommend, in particular, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," and "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual."
Corbin Elridge:

For a guy who you want to emulate Poe, you can find some of his lesser known poems, or even look into some of H.P. Lovecraft's short stories which do not include his famous Cthulu mythology.

For examples of Poe's work, I recommend

"The Conqueror Worm" (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Worm.html#Poem)

Or really anything you might pick from here: Poe's Selected Works. (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/index.html#PoeStudy)

I hope those help. Just remember that it is okay to steal ideas as a DM. All you have to do is mix em up a bit until your players won't recognize them.

[Phantom.exe]

Victor Saint-Demain:

This might take too much of your time, but picking up Sherlock Holmes complete works might help. There isn't much evil that comes out of his mouth, but he has a few repeated quotes which can either be stolen verbatim or twisted about to provide a more evil bent.

You can even give him some of Holmes' legendary drive. When Mr. Saint-Demain is on a case/trail, he often does not eat or sleep, tightening his net about his opponent at each moment. Alternatively, he may be an excitement junky (as was Holmes), so when he is not on a case, he may indulge himself on various stimulants or narcotics, while complaining about how boring and mundane everything is.

In fact, Holmes is a great frame for a villain. He often says himself that were he to be a criminal, then London would have much to fear. People around him (and even Watson) often find him to be almost inhuman. He rarely shows any emotion, is quite arrogant about his methods, and impassionately reviews grisly murder scenes.

I would recommend, in particular, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," and "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual."
Corbin Elridge:

For a guy who you want to emulate Poe, you can find some of his lesser known poems, or even look into some of H.P. Lovecraft's short stories which do not include his famous Cthulu mythology.

For examples of Poe's work, I recommend

"The Conqueror Worm" (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Worm.html#Poem)

Or really anything you might pick from here: Poe's Selected Works. (http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/index.html#PoeStudy)

I hope those help. Just remember that it is okay to steal ideas as a DM. All you have to do is mix em up a bit until your players won't recognize them.

Wow, thanks. I actually never really thought of directly emulating either character.

I can tell you that when I ran the adventures previous, my players literally waited two weeks to finally get the chance to read the ending of Poe's "The Raven". It was delightful.

The Conquerer Worm is fantastic. I hope to be able to use some of the lines during combat / dialog.

Yeah, by the way - I would just like to reccomend all three adventures for anyone who enjoys Eberron, pulp, or mystery - they're literally the best adventures I've ever run.

[OneFamiliarFace]

These actually sound like pretty cool adventures. I may pick em up when I get back to playing in person. I hope they are still around by then.

But yeah, the ol' quoted poetry in combat can make a bad guy pretty creepy if done right. My friends still think of me as being perched up on the back of a couch (like a tombstone), head cocked and reciting limmericks as my bard-jester's zombies attacked them. And that combat wasn't even that hard.

I do highly recommend emulating Holmes directly though. He would probably make an even better villain than he did a hero.

[Phantom.exe]

Yeah. They're great adventures.

I guess in some ways, this thread just espouses their awesomeness. They're sublimely flavorful, well-written, and extremely Eberron-y.

The lot of them are from Dungeon Magazine.

"Chimes at Midnight" is the first one, for level 4 parties. It's from issue 133.

"Quoth the Raven" is a lot darker, and is for level 8 or so parties. Probably more like 7. It's in issue 150 (last issue evar!)

"Hell's Heart" is the finale. It's from issue 150 - so you can find it at the website online for free.

*cough* http://snowmelt.aenashi.com/books/DnD/Mags/Dungeon%20Magazine/ *wheeze*

[OneFamiliarFace]

Man, I wish I had kept up my subscription to those. Ima have to dig around and see what I can come up with!

[RukiTanuki]

You can get PDFs of the print magazines from Paizo (http://www.paizo.com) for four or five bucks.

I dug up the print magazines last night. The trilogy looks interesting indeed.