Of Erin Tarn on Planktal-Nakton

[SolCannibal]

While reading Vampire Kingdoms just yesterday (acquired the book very recently) i came across an interesting paragraph in the words of the venerable lady, at page 100.

Planktal-Nakton is a name that is immediately known to me. If this is the same man (and the descriptions I have heard would seem to confirm that he is), this "hero" is the notorious necromancer and one-time commander of the dreaded Federation of Magic. He is responsible for much carnage and death in the East as the leader of the devastating three year campaign of terrorism known as the Revenge of Blood. Thousands of innocent people, living in CS territory along Chi-Town's eastern borders, were slaughtered in the name of revenge. The necromancer is also known for human sacrifices and countless other crimes against the Coalition and humanity. Like Doctor Reid, he disappeared and, for the past decade, has been believed dead. His mystic powers are legendary. I find it difficult to believe that this maleficent murderer could now be on the side of the angels.

There's another piece on him that i liked too.

The necromancer had grown disillusioned with the Federation of Magic and had fallen into a deep melancholy. He viewed the Federation as being "like frightened children given to flinging stones at their parents." He craved adventure, glory, and power.

Seriously, i love Reid and the Rangers but it's a real shame i can't find much more detail on Planktal-Nakton's past, it sounds so much more dramatic than his current Iznogoud role. Was he a lieutenant of Dunscon, a rival warlord, a remnant of Nostrous' Federation of Magic?

Personally i would really appreciate seeing more background info on him if Doc Reid's Rangers ever get an update.

How have people used this NPC in their games? Does anyone care to tell some stories? I'm curious about what people make out of him, either played straight or adding twists.

Also, what would be the pros and cons of keeping Planktal-Nakton as a ley line walker with a necromantic twist instead of an actual necromancer O.C.C? Considering his taste for sacrifice it is tempting to put him making some kind of deal with the aztec gods, Tlaloc specially, who i think would love messing with the vampires as much as Reid's crew does.

[Balabanto]

While reading Vampire Kingdoms just yesterday (acquired the book very recently) i came across an interesting paragraph in the words of the venerable lady, at page 100.

Planktal-Nakton is a name that is immediately known to me. If this is the same man (and the descriptions I have heard would seem to confirm that he is), this "hero" is the notorious necromancer and one-time commander of the dreaded Federation of Magic. He is responsible for much carnage and death in the East as the leader of the devastating three year campaign of terrorism known as the Revenge of Blood. Thousands of innocent people, living in CS territory along Chi-Town's eastern borders, were slaughtered in the name of revenge. The necromancer is also known for human sacrifices and countless other crimes against the Coalition and humanity. Like Doctor Reid, he disappeared and, for the past decade, has been believed dead. His mystic powers are legendary. I find it difficult to believe that this maleficent murderer could now be on the side of the angels.

There's another piece on him that i liked too.

The necromancer had grown disillusioned with the Federation of Magic and had fallen into a deep melancholy. He viewed the Federation as being "like frightened children given to flinging stones at their parents." He craved adventure, glory, and power.

Seriously, i love Reid and the Rangers but it's a real shame i can't find much more detail on Planktal-Nakton's past, it sounds so much more dramatic than his current Iznogoud role. Was he a lieutenant of Dunscon, a rival warlord, a remnant of Nostrous' Federation of Magic?

Personally i would really appreciate seeing more background info on him if Doc Reid's Rangers ever get an update.

How have people used this NPC in their games? Does anyone care to tell some stories? I'm curious about what people make out of him, either played straight or adding twists.

Also, what would be the pros and cons of keeping Planktal-Nakton as a ley line walker with a necromantic twist instead of an actual necromancer O.C.C? Considering his taste for sacrifice it is tempting to put him making some kind of deal with the aztec gods, Tlaloc specially, who i think would love messing with the vampires as much as Reid's crew does.

That would actually be a pretty awesome plot. "So what do you get if you sacrifice all ten thousand of these people?"

"Tlaloc will make it rain over Mexico for a hundred years. The Vampire Threat will be virtually destroyed. Then we can go into their hidey holes and kill them."

"You can't murder ten thousand people to get what you want."

"Try and stop me."

[Lenwen]

While reading Vampire Kingdoms just yesterday (acquired the book very recently) i came across an interesting paragraph in the words of the venerable lady, at page 100.

Planktal-Nakton is a name that is immediately known to me. If this is the same man (and the descriptions I have heard would seem to confirm that he is), this "hero" is the notorious necromancer and one-time commander of the dreaded Federation of Magic. He is responsible for much carnage and death in the East as the leader of the devastating three year campaign of terrorism known as the Revenge of Blood. Thousands of innocent people, living in CS territory along Chi-Town's eastern borders, were slaughtered in the name of revenge. The necromancer is also known for human sacrifices and countless other crimes against the Coalition and humanity. Like Doctor Reid, he disappeared and, for the past decade, has been believed dead. His mystic powers are legendary. I find it difficult to believe that this maleficent murderer could now be on the side of the angels.

There's another piece on him that i liked too.

The necromancer had grown disillusioned with the Federation of Magic and had fallen into a deep melancholy. He viewed the Federation as being "like frightened children given to flinging stones at their parents." He craved adventure, glory, and power.

Seriously, i love Reid and the Rangers but it's a real shame i can't find much more detail on Planktal-Nakton's past, it sounds so much more dramatic than his current Iznogoud role. Was he a lieutenant of Dunscon, a rival warlord, a remnant of Nostrous' Federation of Magic?

Personally i would really appreciate seeing more background info on him if Doc Reid's Rangers ever get an update.

How have people used this NPC in their games? Does anyone care to tell some stories? I'm curious about what people make out of him, either played straight or adding twists.

Also, what would be the pros and cons of keeping Planktal-Nakton as a ley line walker with a necromantic twist instead of an actual necromancer O.C.C? Considering his taste for sacrifice it is tempting to put him making some kind of deal with the aztec gods, Tlaloc specially, who i think would love messing with the vampires as much as Reid's crew does.

That would actually be a pretty awesome plot. "So what do you get if you sacrifice all ten thousand of these people?"

"Tlaloc will make it rain over Mexico for a hundred years. The Vampire Threat will be virtually destroyed. Then we can go into their hidey holes and kill them."

"You can't murder ten thousand people to get what you want."

"Try and stop me."

If playing him to be heroric .. that would fit nicely ..

The needs of the many .. outweight .. the needs of the few ..

What is killing 10,000 people .. when I can save Billions ?

[Rallan]

While reading Vampire Kingdoms just yesterday (acquired the book very recently) i came across an interesting paragraph in the words of the venerable lady, at page 100.

Planktal-Nakton is a name that is immediately known to me. If this is the same man (and the descriptions I have heard would seem to confirm that he is), this "hero" is the notorious necromancer and one-time commander of the dreaded Federation of Magic. He is responsible for much carnage and death in the East as the leader of the devastating three year campaign of terrorism known as the Revenge of Blood. Thousands of innocent people, living in CS territory along Chi-Town's eastern borders, were slaughtered in the name of revenge. The necromancer is also known for human sacrifices and countless other crimes against the Coalition and humanity. Like Doctor Reid, he disappeared and, for the past decade, has been believed dead. His mystic powers are legendary. I find it difficult to believe that this maleficent murderer could now be on the side of the angels.

There's another piece on him that i liked too.

The necromancer had grown disillusioned with the Federation of Magic and had fallen into a deep melancholy. He viewed the Federation as being "like frightened children given to flinging stones at their parents." He craved adventure, glory, and power.

Seriously, i love Reid and the Rangers but it's a real shame i can't find much more detail on Planktal-Nakton's past, it sounds so much more dramatic than his current Iznogoud role. Was he a lieutenant of Dunscon, a rival warlord, a remnant of Nostrous' Federation of Magic?

Personally i would really appreciate seeing more background info on him if Doc Reid's Rangers ever get an update.

How have people used this NPC in their games? Does anyone care to tell some stories? I'm curious about what people make out of him, either played straight or adding twists.

Also, what would be the pros and cons of keeping Planktal-Nakton as a ley line walker with a necromantic twist instead of an actual necromancer O.C.C? Considering his taste for sacrifice it is tempting to put him making some kind of deal with the aztec gods, Tlaloc specially, who i think would love messing with the vampires as much as Reid's crew does.

Who knows what Planktal's backstory might contain? Especially since he was written up a long time before the Federation as presented in the FoM worldbook had been thought up. It might just be me, but I always got the impression in the early books that the FoM was basically an insidious terrorist network / supervillain league, stateless and dispossessed ever since the fledgling Coalition States had managed to root them out of Old Chicago a century ago. The FoM as a secret evil citystate with legions of badasses always struck me as hella unlike the FoM hinted at earlier on.

Also, I don't think restatting Planktal-Nakton as a member of the Necromancer OCC would work very well. Almost all the spells of the Necromancer OCC require you to do pretty gruesome stuff to cast so he wouldn't be able to use necromancy in public, and some of them do conspicuously nasty things that are so conspicuously nasty (like raising shambling hordes of the dead for example, or grafting parts of cadavers to your own body) that he wouldn't even be able to walk around with their effects active in public. I really doubt that a bunch of zealous idealists who are fanatically committed to wiping out the evil dead would tolerate a real necromancer in their midst, at least not unless he sat on his hands and virtually never used any of his power (and Planktal-Nakton doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd willingly choose to hide in a place where he has to abstain from using his power for years).

So it's probably better to leave him as a regular high-level spellcaster who's just got a morbid fascination with vampires because he hopes to learn enough about the nature of their power to harness it without becoming a vampire himself.

[Rallan]

While reading Vampire Kingdoms just yesterday (acquired the book very recently) i came across an interesting paragraph in the words of the venerable lady, at page 100.

Planktal-Nakton is a name that is immediately known to me. If this is the same man (and the descriptions I have heard would seem to confirm that he is), this "hero" is the notorious necromancer and one-time commander of the dreaded Federation of Magic. He is responsible for much carnage and death in the East as the leader of the devastating three year campaign of terrorism known as the Revenge of Blood. Thousands of innocent people, living in CS territory along Chi-Town's eastern borders, were slaughtered in the name of revenge. The necromancer is also known for human sacrifices and countless other crimes against the Coalition and humanity. Like Doctor Reid, he disappeared and, for the past decade, has been believed dead. His mystic powers are legendary. I find it difficult to believe that this maleficent murderer could now be on the side of the angels.

There's another piece on him that i liked too.

The necromancer had grown disillusioned with the Federation of Magic and had fallen into a deep melancholy. He viewed the Federation as being "like frightened children given to flinging stones at their parents." He craved adventure, glory, and power.

Seriously, i love Reid and the Rangers but it's a real shame i can't find much more detail on Planktal-Nakton's past, it sounds so much more dramatic than his current Iznogoud role. Was he a lieutenant of Dunscon, a rival warlord, a remnant of Nostrous' Federation of Magic?

Personally i would really appreciate seeing more background info on him if Doc Reid's Rangers ever get an update.

How have people used this NPC in their games? Does anyone care to tell some stories? I'm curious about what people make out of him, either played straight or adding twists.

Also, what would be the pros and cons of keeping Planktal-Nakton as a ley line walker with a necromantic twist instead of an actual necromancer O.C.C? Considering his taste for sacrifice it is tempting to put him making some kind of deal with the aztec gods, Tlaloc specially, who i think would love messing with the vampires as much as Reid's crew does.

That would actually be a pretty awesome plot. "So what do you get if you sacrifice all ten thousand of these people?"

"Tlaloc will make it rain over Mexico for a hundred years. The Vampire Threat will be virtually destroyed. Then we can go into their hidey holes and kill them."

"You can't murder ten thousand people to get what you want."

"Try and stop me."

If he's smart he'd have a few thousand extra sacrifices on the side to pay Enumu off with. The last thing you need is the Columbian vampire intelligence letting his cousins in Mexico borrow his pet weather demon

[SolCannibal]

Considering his taste for sacrifice it is tempting to put him making some kind of deal with the aztec gods, Tlaloc specially, who i think would love messing with the vampires as much as Reid's crew does.

That would actually be a pretty awesome plot. "So what do you get if you sacrifice all ten thousand of these people?"

"Tlaloc will make it rain over Mexico for a hundred years. The Vampire Threat will be virtually destroyed. Then we can go into their hidey holes and kill them."

"You can't murder ten thousand people to get what you want."

"Try and stop me."

Sure makes an engrossing conflict to insert players into. That said, sacrificing a thousand vampires might be equally effective, more so in fact due to their high P.P.E.

That said, getting one thousand vampires to sacrifice could be very complicated. A compromise solution wolud be to attack some city strongly dominated by vampires and sacrificing everything found standing, as monsters or betrayers of humanity all of them. How "good" that solution is in the spectre of morality is something for a group of PCs to confront if the problem arises.

It would also be an interesting way for Planktal-Nakton to take on a big role outside of Reid's shadow. Is he doing it to save a country from an evil or for the glory it can bring him?

Who knows what Planktal's backstory might contain? Especially since he was written up a long time before the Federation as presented in the FoM worldbook had been thought up. It might just be me, but I always got the impression in the early books that the FoM was basically an insidious terrorist network / supervillain league, stateless and dispossessed ever since the fledgling Coalition States had managed to root them out of Old Chicago a century ago. The FoM as a secret evil city-state with legions of badasses always struck me as hella unlike the FoM hinted at earlier on.

I get what you mean, while some of the fluff in the FoM book does imply at both aspects, city-state and terrorist organization, we get Dunscon state and its politics described and nothing about the FoM as terrotist organization. While i always felt the FoM is such a crappy state after decades of Dunscon's rule because he cares far more about vengeance, carnage and flaunting power than ruling an actual, effective state, we'll only get something akin to supernatural terrorist cells with the monster squads post-Tolkeen War.

The FoM overall could be seen as something like the PLO in the 70's, Black September and all or for a much more recent example, the Taliban's Afghanistan.

Anyways we need more FoM bad guys beside Dunscon demonic cohorts.

Also, I don't think restatting Planktal-Nakton as a member of the Necromancer OCC would work very well. Almost all the spells of the Necromancer OCC require you to do pretty gruesome stuff to cast so he wouldn't be able to use necromancy in public, and some of them do conspicuously nasty things that are so conspicuously nasty (like raising shambling hordes of the dead for example, or grafting parts of cadavers to your own body) that he wouldn't even be able to walk around with their effects active in public. I really doubt that a bunch of zealous idealists who are fanatically committed to wiping out the evil dead would tolerate a real necromancer in their midst, at least not unless he sat on his hands and virtually never used any of his power (and Planktal-Nakton doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd willingly choose to hide in a place where he has to abstain from using his power for years).

So it's probably better to leave him as a regular high-level spellcaster who's just got a morbid fascination with vampires because he hopes to learn enough about the nature of their power to harness it without becoming a vampire himself.

Someone mentioned that he was getting restatted as an actual necromancer in future books and i was questioning it, among other things because staying as ley line walker offers considerable versatility, not to mention that vampires are not exactly good sources of remains for a necromancer to plunder. Though his description does mention necromancer (at least as a leaning if not actual OCC) and he does have a number of mummies under his control. So i was curious about how would a "ley line walker faking necromancer" play out.

Rallan, who's that Enumu and the weather demon you speak of? Where can i get information on it?

People, thanks a lot for the answers and comments, they'll be pretty useful when i do cook up a game of my own.

[The Beast]

Rallan, who's that Enumu and the weather demon you speak of? Where can i get information on it?

He's a demon lord found in the first South America book.

[SolCannibal]

Rallan, who's that Enumu and the weather demon you speak of? Where can i get information on it?

He's a demon lord found in the first South America book.

Thanks a lot, got to check it out.

[Rallan]

Rallan, who's that Enumu and the weather demon you speak of? Where can i get information on it?

He's a demon lord found in the first South America book.

Thanks a lot, got to check it out.

Long story short, he styles himself as "Lord of Drought", and uses his weather control powers to make things comfortable for a vampire kingdom at the northwest tip of South America, and (when he's feeling particularly ambitious) uncomfortable for the nearby Republic of Columbia.

[csbioborg]

You know the thing with alignments is they make things real black and white
oh now he is diabloic I can't work with him
In real life you think that's the guy that gave me enough suppresive fire to run for my life
I know he is a crazy sob but hey he's on our team

[SolCannibal]

You know the thing with alignments is they make things real black and white
oh now he is diabolic I can't work with him
In real life you think that's the guy that gave me enough suppresive fire to run for my life
I know he is a crazy sob but hey he's on our team

No denying, though Palladium did try to make things a bit more malleable than the D&D original.
That said alignement is not a straightforward thing IC, what i do prefer considerably. Most you
can do is detect "supernatural evil" and i'm not too sure of that spell reliability - how does it
react to a scrupulous or anarchist demon?

[Shark_Force]

the main thing i dislike are all the "never" and "always" in the palladium alignments. there are two words you should never use because they will always get you into trouble: never, and always

but truthfully, if you ignore those two aspects (and allow for the fact that people can essentially respond as a different alignment to different people; a CS citizen might be scrupulous or even principled (might be a bit rare given the sheer amount of hypocrisy) towards mundane humans, but might be only anarchist towards rogue scholars, rogue scientists, and such... but might actually count as one of the evil alignments towards d-bees, mages, demons, etc.

but really, the best alignment systems for representing a "realistic" morality would probably look a lot more like the 'alignment' rules i've seen in other systems; you pick some things that are important to you, pick some things you hate, and work from that. i do still think good and evil will to some extent have a place, but i don't think it's a good idea to start someone off with either, as such; find out what the character is like in play (not always the same as what the character thinks it will be at all) and then consider assigning an alignment.

[csbioborg]

I really ignore alignment and just go with character descriptions
because there are sure of heck of a lot of CS troopers that with miscreant alignments that are decribed as willing to lay down their lives for the CS
I just except that their being a whole school of study on human behavior
putting down 6 alignments down just doesn't really do the job
was Patton evil?
By Palladium standards he was
you hear about the convicted murderer that pt his life on the line to save a guard?
guy shouldn't exist by Palladium standards
then there are the Anarchist South American gods that believe in human sacrifice because that is part of their cultural view
comeon Palladium truth is you just didn't want to make the Southern peoples mad at you for calling thier former gods evil