a necromancer in an undead town - a fun quest idea

[Ettina]

OK, here's an idea I thought up that some of you might want to try. A town populated entirely by intelligent, free-willed undead - maybe the necropolitan town or someplace like that - calls in the adventurers because they're having trouble with a dark cleric (or multiclass, or rogue with a bunch of magic items, or whatever works best). This cleric, rather than acting ambitious and raising up an army or something, is just doing petty and random things, like using hide from undead to sneak into secure places and steal stuff, or mind-controlling anyone who annoys him or gets in his way with one of the many undead-specific mind control abilities out there. Basically, using only undead-specific spells in order to cause petty mayhem in an undead town.

Maybe the undead who are having trouble with him haven't realized he's using undead-specific spells - for example they think he's using an invisibility spell instead of hide from undead - so when they describe him to the (living) PCs, he seems more dangerous than he actually is.

When the PCs actually meet him, have a funny bit where he's right there in plain sight and they point him out to their guide and their guide can't see him. Then have him freak out because he has nothing prepared for dealing with the living, apart from just mind-controlling whichever undead are handy and throwing them at the PCs.

[TurboGhast]

I agree that the general idea is clever.

[Andezzar]

It is a clever idea for a story, but I fear it won't work as well in a game. The players might be quite disappointed if the villain is such a push over. Now if the undead describe the villain as master of stealth and such because he can't be detected by them, and they prepare accordingly, but his true strength lies elsewhere, the encounters might become a lot more interesting.

BTW hide from Undead allows a (low DC - 1st level spell) save for all but unintelligent undead, so it might not be as fool proof as you think.

[Ettina]

It is a clever idea for a story, but I fear it won't work as well in a game. The players might be quite disappointed if the villain is such a push over. Now if the undead describe the villain as master of stealth and such because he can't be detected by them, and they prepare accordingly, but his true strength lies elsewhere, the encounters might become a lot more interesting.

BTW hide from Undead allows a (low DC - 1st level spell) save for all but unintelligent undead, so it might not be as fool proof as you think.

Well, I was thinking his true strength lies in siccing undead bystanders on them. Including some fairly competent guards who up until then were working with the PCs.

As for the hide from undead Will save, aren't there ways to up the DC of it?

[Orderic]

The problem with Hide from Undead is, that it is only useful if you face only a few undead, since every one of them will have at least a 5% chance of succeeding on the save.

[Honest Tiefling]

Is the town evil itself? What if they became undead against their will? As in, they keeled over, but the energies of the place made them get back up...And instead of feasting on the living, they figured they'd just drop by work and keep going. Do these undead need to eat, and if so, what or who do they eat?

Perhaps a twist is the guy isn't a dark necromancer. He's a wizard (or even false cleric) of a goodly religion of undead slaying...And he's using that training to steal, kill (er...Re-kill?) and harass the populace. He could be banking on saying that these undead are a menace and bringing his order here to exterminate them if things go south. They could be sitting on a valuable resource, such as a gem mine (I would not make it black onyx, but I'd make it a precious one)

If people don't know about them, perhaps they tend to keep to themselves, knowing that outsiders will probably smite them. Except they think there is one and they'll all out of ideas. Maybe very few of them even have class levels, so what are they going to do about it? So as an act of desperation, one is selected to find a group to possibly help them.

In the end, I really just want to hear the story of an undead approaching the party and throwing gems at them to mollify them long enough to speak with them. "I mean you no harm! Take these as offerings! Spare me, but please listen!" They could even see the poor thing in the distance and sneak up, only to get pelted with valuables.

[Xerlith]

I just want to say that you gave me a beautiful idea for a Mournland encounter for which I thank you greatly.

[Ettina]

I just want to say that you gave me a beautiful idea for a Mournland encounter for which I thank you greatly.

You're welcome.

[Bard1cKnowledge]

I agree with the wizard idea

Make sure he has the spell disrupt undead, or maybe an altered version ofit where instead of a ray, it his a 25ft sphere and causes them to be shaken

Or you ccould just use plain disrupt on them

[Morcleon]

The problem with Hide from Undead is, that it is only useful if you face only a few undead, since every one of them will have at least a 5% chance of succeeding on the save.

He could be using a Shirt of Wraith Stalking, which gives a continuous Hide from Undead that doesn't allow a save, even for intelligent undead.