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capheira
Acolyte
USA
18 Posts |
 Posted - 18 Dec 2005 : 11:59:18
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SiriusBlack asked me about my current Bleth/Cormaeril campaign, and the intrigue therein, so - I offer to you the background for my current Realms campaign. Suggestions as to how to best use my dastardly villains - or hey, any canonical sparks to throw into the mix - entirely welcome, and in fact encouraged.
Azoun IV had many mistresses. One of them was a bastard daughter of the Cormaerils. She was fair, and younger than his wife, and seemingly existed only to make him happy. She clashed with the Queen often, and there was talk that if it were not for the Queen's powerful elven family, Fifaeril would find herself put aside for a younger human queen. The Cormaerils encouraged this talk, and promoted the young mistress' popularity among the nobles.
Political intrigue as usual: except that the mistress was trained as an assassin, and after months of accustoming the king to her presence, she struck. Azoun, though old, retained a fighter's instincts still, and managed to prevail in the short dirty fight in his bedchamber.
Vangerdahast's spells proved useful in gently loosening the woman's tongue, and she told all: her Cormaeril relatives had promised her an honored place in their new oligarchy if she managed to kill the king.
As Azoun was a lawful man, and good, he did NOT execute the traitorous nobles. He exiled them, and claimed their lands by right of attainder - but his officials were shocked at the few sparse properties the notoriously wealthy family had. Somehow, they'd been warned, and every possible Cormaeril daughter had been richly dowered and immediately married to a distant Bleth cousin, or the properties had been "sold" to other vassals, some sold for one copper piece. The Crown gained little, and the Cormaerils fled to Sembia or far Waterdeep until Azoun's death.
After the war, the Cormaerils have slowly crept back, and several of the Bleth marriages were quietly dissolved. The Cormaerils have maintained their friendships and family ties during the short years of their absence, and may prove to be a stronger influence in the Forest Kingdom than the Steel Regent can withstand.
Currently, I have a Purple Dragon Knight and a noble scion threading their way through the unstable court, drawn in by what appears to be a mordayn vapor drug ring that's coming either from the clerics of Waukeen or from some notable Sembian merchant families - but pretty soon they'll either be recruited by the Cormaerils or by the Crown.
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Sanishiver
Senior Scribe
USA
476 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2005 : 07:44:59
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I like it, a lot.
Just out of curiosity, have you included any outlander influences in your plot threads? Such as a powerful Sembian perhaps co-opting a Cormaeril plot to his or her own ends?
I ask only because my own campaign is lacking more Sembian/Westage plot-mongering.
Thank you for sharing!
J. Grenemyer |
09/20/2008: Tiger Army at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. You wouldn’t believe how many females rode it out in the pit. Santa Cruz women are all of them beautiful. Now I know to add tough to that description.
6/27/2008: WALL-E is about the best damn movie Pixar has ever made. It had my heart racing and had me rooting for the good guy.
9/9/2006: Dave Mathews Band was off the hook at the Shoreline Amphitheater.
Never, ever read the game books too literally, or make such assumptions that what is omitted cannot be. Bad DM form, that.
And no matter how compelling a picture string theory paints, if it does not accurately describe our universe, it will be no more relevant than an elaborate game of Dungeons and Dragons. --paragraph 1, chapter 9, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene |
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capheira
Acolyte
USA
18 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2005 : 07:51:51
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quote:
Originally posted by Sanishiver
Just out of curiosity, have you included any outlander influences in your plot threads? Such as a powerful Sembian perhaps co-opting a Cormaeril plot to his or her own ends?
I ask only because my own campaign is lacking more Sembian/Westage plot-mongering.
I am including the Selkirks: what'shisface, the Overmaster (I am blanking on his first name), is a Selkirk, and his son operates the Silver Ravens, a *coughcough* adventuring company that works the borders openly and other places secretly, and Mirabeta Selkirk, the Overmaster's sister, has five kids who have kids, and more ambition than any one person should safely hold. She's spent a lot of time working her kids into places of power, and she's heavily allied with the Cormaerils - but of course she intends to turn on them as soon as she can twist the knife for best advantage. Her five kids also have plans of their own, and most of them work with various merchant cartels - there's a LOT of room to work in connections to Waterdeep and the Moonsea, and pretty much if you're dealing in the Moonsea you are dealing with the Zhents.
The youngest granddaughter is a novice priestess of Waukeen in the temple in Suzail; the PCs met Mirabeta socially there, and she struck them as a scary aging vulture with too much jewelry on. Hee. If only they knew. :) |
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Sanishiver
Senior Scribe
USA
476 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2005 : 08:14:04
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That’s cool. Thank you again for sharing.
See I like campaign elements like what you’re doing because it puts another layer over things. If a typical group of gamers with some Realms Knowledge manage to put down a ‘Cormaeril Plot’, they might not realize there are other families/groups/organizations involved that view the character’s defeat of the Cormaerils as just a setback, and are able to keep the overall plot in motion.
That, and I like how you take a Realms element like the Selkirks, and expand on it to make it your own. That’s how Realmslore grows (and even jumps from one campaign to another, if you don’t mind me doing so).
J. Grenemyer |
09/20/2008: Tiger Army at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. You wouldn’t believe how many females rode it out in the pit. Santa Cruz women are all of them beautiful. Now I know to add tough to that description.
6/27/2008: WALL-E is about the best damn movie Pixar has ever made. It had my heart racing and had me rooting for the good guy.
9/9/2006: Dave Mathews Band was off the hook at the Shoreline Amphitheater.
Never, ever read the game books too literally, or make such assumptions that what is omitted cannot be. Bad DM form, that.
And no matter how compelling a picture string theory paints, if it does not accurately describe our universe, it will be no more relevant than an elaborate game of Dungeons and Dragons. --paragraph 1, chapter 9, The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene |
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capheira
Acolyte
USA
18 Posts |
Posted - 19 Dec 2005 : 08:28:09
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quote:
Originally posted by Sanishiver
That’s cool. Thank you again for sharing.
You are entirely and completely welcome. :)
quote:
See I like campaign elements like what you’re doing because it puts another layer over things. If a typical group of gamers with some Realms Knowledge manage to put down a ‘Cormaeril Plot’, they might not realize there are other families/groups/organizations involved that view the character’s defeat of the Cormaerils as just a setback, and are able to keep the overall plot in motion.
Exactly! Though I do plan on tossing in some dungeon crawls and/or skirmishes with a phaerimm as the campaign progresses, because I don't like a fight-free campaign and neither do they. The two guys I'm running for could also take this an entirely different direction and decide to help the new Regent out with her shipping problems, and go fight pirates for a while, especially this certain notorious halfling pirate that's managed to steal a ship out of the harbor (thus making Brandobaris snork his heavenly drink of choice out of his nose and applaud).
quote:
That, and I like how you take a Realms element like the Selkirks, and expand on it to make it your own. That’s how Realmslore grows (and even jumps from one campaign to another, if you don’t mind me doing so).
Oh, lord, TAKE the horrible infighting blonde Sembian mess, do!  
More seriously, if you DO manage to figure out a family tree and/or where Mirabeta shoved her children (as I see it, she has three daughters and two sons, with the order going something like "son daughter daughter son daughter", since the shiny-new novice priestess of Waukeen is the youngest daughter of the youngest child), please come back and share.
While I haven't finished figuring out the Selkirks (and at least one of them married a Cormyrian noble, though I'm not sure yet if the Selkirk moved to Cormyr or the noble moved to Sembia) by any means, I'm pretty sure that one of them is a part of the Black Network, and one of them is involved with the Iron Throne, but they're both looking towards the Overmaster's seat, as is their mother. What makes my conception of the Selkirks fun is that they will NOT stab each other in the back...right NOW. They'll stick together right now because that is in their best interest: but the second that what'shisface the Overmaster drops, it's every man for himself and Garagos take the hindmost.
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Ergdusch
Master of Realmslore
Germany
1720 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jul 2008 : 12:37:20
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I have been wondering for a while now what events lead to the exil of the the Cormaeril family and which novel/sourcebook details those events?
Are or better how much of the events capheira summarised in her first post are canon? |
"Das Gras weht im Wind, wenn der Wind weht." |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36812 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jul 2008 : 14:21:04
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quote:
Originally posted by Ergdusch
I have been wondering for a while now what events lead to the exil of the the Cormaeril family and which novel/sourcebook details those events?
Cormyr: A Novel. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen!  |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31792 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jul 2008 : 15:57:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Ergdusch
I have been wondering for a while now what events lead to the exil of the the Cormaeril family and which novel/sourcebook details those events?
Cormyr: A Novel.
Beyond the High Road has a few tidbits too. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Ergdusch
Master of Realmslore
Germany
1720 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jul 2008 : 17:01:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
Cormyr: A Novel.
Great! This novel is on its way to me right at this moment. I should be able to read it by the end of next week.
Thanks for the speedy answers, both of you.
Ergdusch |
"Das Gras weht im Wind, wenn der Wind weht." |
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Asgetrion
Master of Realmslore
Finland
1564 Posts |
Posted - 20 Jul 2008 : 09:09:31
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Capheira, considering the narure of your ideas, a Malaugrym might also be a good villain to use as a "mastermind" in your campaign...  |
"What am I doing today? Ask me tomorrow - I can be sure of giving you the right answer then."
-- Askarran of Selgaunt, Master Sage, speaking to a curious merchant, Year of the Helm |
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Cormaerils in Cormyr, post-Azoun
