Fate of Delecti

[Murf]

So what happens to everybody's favorite undead menace?

Does Argrath take some time out to eliminate this threat to his flank and later his rear?

Also are there any stats for the Mr Cold and Clammy and his bevy of blood sucking bimbos.?

 

[Joerg]

In a typical Dragon Pass game with alliances, Argrath sends an emissary that can manage water easily (because of webbed feet) and converts that into the first unit of Zombies.

The Dancers in Darkness have their own entry in the Bestiary. Delecti's physical stats vary with the dead body he migrated into and its state of decomposition.

[Jens]

I always had the same thought about Brangbane- seems like a Hero or even tough Rune-Level PCs should be able to put an end to his menace for good. 

[Murf]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

In a typical Dragon Pass game with alliances, Argrath sends an emissary that can manage water easily (because of webbed feet) and converts that into the first unit of Zombies.

The Dancers in Darkness have their own entry in the Bestiary. Delecti's physical stats vary with the dead body he migrated into and its state of decomposition.

So does this mean that Delecti stays neutral? 

Strategically speaking I could not risk getting my army decisively engaged in Tarsh much less points further north and risk Delecti going of Night King on my rear area and storming a lightly defended Boldhome.

On the other hand it would make and interesting campaign.

[Squaredeal Sten]

Delecti   is a survivor.  .  As a vampire he just wants to keep on keeping on.  I like Andrew L Montgomery's suggestion that he may switch sides or be neutral in the Hero Wars.  It is one of these loose ends that you may use in your campaign.

 

[metcalph]

To give some idea as to Delecti's status, in the Troll War he fought on the side of Ironhoof and other good guys.  Nobody likes him, he's too tough to be done in and nobody wants to see him on the other side. 

[g33k]

4 hours ago, Jens said:

... seems like a Hero or even tough Rune-Level PCs should be able to put an end to his menace for good. 

That this hasn't happened says strongly to me that there's more to him  than has yet seen publication.

[svensson]

GREAT question! I look forward to the discussion.

As I understand it, and I forget where I read it [I think it was RQ3's Cults of Terror but I might be wrong], the nature of Delecti is that he can inhabit any corpse in the swamp. Kill one Delecti and another rises within hours. Until all corpses are removed from the swamp, there will always be a Delecti.

But I would like to see a fully empowered Delecti statted up.

Edited November 13, 2023 by svensson

[French Desperate WindChild]

Do we know what Delecti wants ?

 

it seems to me that any decision he took was to « rest in peace », making alliance with people who accept to stay outside of its territory.

Does he launch raids against his neighbors to get new lands, or material for any evil plan ?

in fact, except his nature, I don’t know any reason to consider him as a bad guy ?

Edited November 13, 2023 by French Desperate WindChild

[Nick Brooke]

Delecti the Necromancer is an EWF remnant. The vengeance-crazed Prince Argrath is bringing back the ancient, blasphemous, forbidden powers of the EWF to aid in his fight against the Empire (c.f Robert E Howard's short story, The Wyrms of the Earth). So of course Delecti will usually ally with Argrath in the Hero Wars. Except when Argrath goes too far, and the Lunar emissaries can convince Delecti -- even Delecti! -- that he needs to be brought down.

[Nick Brooke]

For extra shits and giggles: we all know Sartar's heirs and champions used to head south to the Holy Country hoping to become eternally-reincarnated God-Kings, but Prince Argrath's rival Jar-eel the Razoress put a stop to that when the Wolf Pirates attacked (cf. Prince of Sartar), and his best mate Harrek the Berserk salted the ground when he destroyed the City of Wonders.

So when Argrath decides he really needs a shot at personal immortality in order to take on his arch-enemy the Red Emperor (who dies and returns as a matter of course), who's he going to turn to for assistance? And when "Prince Argrath" returns from his expedition to Delecti's Ruin, exactly who is in the driving seat?

(We know Argrath is cool with undead advisors, just look at that Praxian sorcerer he hangs around with. In a Robert E Howard short story, you'd know what's really going on.)

[metcalph]

On a related note, I just had the idea that for his religious services to Humct (whom he worshipped before turning to Vivamort), Delecti will wear a mad scientist's lab coat.

[Nick Brooke]

Guys, if you're allowed to spin paranoid fantasies about what those eeevil Lunars are getting up to, we're allowed to reflect them right back atcha. And using our primary Gloranthan sources like White Bear & Red Moon, Wyrms Footnotes, Dragon Pass and King of Sartar, it's easily done. Just stop being so credulous, and always remember that Greg Stafford wasn't creating a simplistic "goodies vs. baddies" set-up: that's the sort of schlocky extruded fantasy product he despised. Trolls have kin too, and all that.

[Nick Brooke]

12 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

Delecti   is a survivor. As a vampire he just wants to keep on keeping on.

Delecti isn't "a vampire": he's the Necromancer. Delecti makes vampires, he rules over vampires, he creates new kinds of vampire. He himself is something entirely different. 

[David Scott]

I always found that allying Delecti was a bit like a game of chicken. You have to sacrifice a unit, but if you don't the other side will. To create more zombies, Delecti or a zombie unit needs to be need to be next to units eliminated in combat. If you stack a couple of units with Delecti, assaults on the marsh become more difficult, with the side effect of the zombie chain getting longer. In quite a few games, I just sacrificed a unit to ally, then kept him stationary until I'm clearly winning, then move him out to create a mop up zombie chain.

I always imagined Delecti making a land grab if the flood of 1652 does reach the march, the overspill will release any undead to feed on the flood victims, creating more zombies.

[Rick Meints]

To paraphrase one of my favorite movie quotes, Delecti has a long tradition of existence.

Having him defeated, destroyed, and gone for good would be a tremendous loss for MGF.

He has a lot of choices and his future is largely undecided. 

[Murf]

Does any one have any ideas on how to defeat or destroy the Big Bad D?

I would imagine a HQ to find his vulnerability would be in order.  Perhaps a variation on Jar Eel's dismembering Pharaoh while he was weakened during the Masters of Luck and Death Tournament. 

A couple of ploy seeds depending on his (it;s) diplomatic stance:

Argrath is allied-

The PC are a part of a delegation to ally D, As their journey progresses they begin to get clues THEY are to be a special sacrifice to to seal the alliance rather than sacrificing a whole regiment, What do they do?

Post battle of the Queens. Phandros sends an emissary to the Marsh with an offer he can't refuse. PC can be for Sartar or Fazzur and are charged with finding out what the offer is and stopping the deal. 

Gen Fazzur needs allies in his war against his treacherous nephew. While the undead Lord of the Marsh is an unsavory choice needs must. 

Duck Point has been under continuous Lunar occupation even after Dragonrise. The newly arrived Argrathand the Sartar Free Army meets the Lunar army in the North, the Sartar City Militia is given the mission the besiege and taking Duck Point. The lunar garrison is being supplied through the Marsh with Delecti's tact approval.    

Argrath's enemy-

Argrath wants the unpredictable Delicti destroyed and the Marsh drained before he moves against Tarsh. this will secure his rear and open up river traffic all the way to Skyfall Lake and allow him to keep his army supplied by river in Tarsh. 

The Lismelder tribe and the Ducks have been attacking the rods that maintain the edge of the Marsh. They have even managed to slay several Dancers of Darkness in the process. Delecti has been massing a undead army to push back the boarder and teach these children a lesson. The PCs are tasked with stopping the human/ducks from rocking the boat and/or assisting in defeating the undead army.

Argrath has marched north into Tarsh in support of Gen Fazzure against Phandros. The Emperor has given Delicti what ever he wants to attack Agrath in the rear, Already several clans along the Marsh's edge have been attacked over run. With his forces tied up in Tarsh there is little Argrath can do to help. The PCs must rally everyone they to hold off the undead menace.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Nick Brooke
Trimmed white space.

[AndrewTBP]

I’d like to point out that 13th Age Glorantha doesn’t have a monster entry for Delecti though it does for Gagix Two-Barb (14th level) and the Famished Crimson Bat (15th level). 
😉

[Beoferret]

This thread is raising a question in my mind: wouldn't any and all Humakti desert anyone who allied with Delecti (a hero of undeath)? 

[David Scott]

18 minutes ago, Beoferret said:

This thread is raising a question in my mind: wouldn't any and all Humakti desert anyone who allied with Delecti (a hero of undeath)? 

Mashing together the Dragon Pass board game and the new Mythology book, brings up that only 3% of initiates in Sartar are Humakti and one unit, the swordbrothers, are likely the Humakti. They have no specific rules, but if they did, i'd use the ruse of "why don't you go and pretend to ally with Delecti, but kill him instead".  It's 

6-5-5-0 vs (5)-10*-3-0 so they have a chance

Alternatively 3% makes no difference.

[Akhôrahil]

6 hours ago, Beoferret said:

This thread is raising a question in my mind: wouldn't any and all Humakti desert anyone who allied with Delecti (a hero of undeath)? 

Presumably yes, but Argrath has plot immunity against any consequences of his actions, so I'm sure he'll be fine.

[Jens]

8 hours ago, Beoferret said:

wouldn't any and all Humakti desert anyone who allied with Delecti

Not to worry, Argrath will just Illuminate all of his Humakti. 

[Richard S.]

8 hours ago, Beoferret said:

This thread is raising a question in my mind: wouldn't any and all Humakti desert anyone who allied with Delecti (a hero of undeath)? 

Did the Storm Bulls desert the Praxian when they allied with Broo against the Lunars? Mortals are still capable of working with a lesser evil to defeat a greater, just don't let them get too close to each other when there's no other enemies stopping. And Humakt is far less focused on undead killing than Storm Bull is on chaos killing.

[Akhôrahil]

8 hours ago, David Scott said:

Mashing together the Dragon Pass board game and the new Mythology book, brings up that only 3% of initiates in Sartar are Humakti

3% doesn’t sound like a lot, but Sartar can probably keep at the very most 10% of its population at arms over a longer haul (and likely less), while the large majority of Humakti are professional warriors and soldiers. They will make up a substantial chunk of the fighting men.

[Darius West]

On 11/13/2023 at 6:08 AM, Murf said:

So what happens to everybody's favorite undead menace?

Does Argrath take some time out to eliminate this threat to his flank and later his rear?

Also are there any stats for the Mr Cold and Clammy and his bevy of blood sucking bimbos.?

No, Argrath sacrifices some ducks to Delecti and gets the Necromancer on side as a mercenary, before marching a chain of zombies North West against the Lunars.   Play the boardgame and you will understand.

Edited November 17, 2023 by Darius West