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Author Topic: How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?  (Read 6506 times)

Kyle Aaron

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #15 on: January 22, 2018, 05:01:22 PM »
Quote from: Willie the Duck;1021159
Other than the fact that you've seen this topic repeatedly, what exactly makes this issue 'brain stunted?' If there was a clarification in Dragon (which by now most players would not have seen), then clearly there is/was and problem/concern with the original rules.
I recall questions in the letters page where one guy was asking "how much does a legless dwarf weigh, and can he sit in a human fighter's backpack and fight from it?" and "how much does a wingless draconian weigh, and can he be flung from a trebuchet?"

Do you think those questions show that there was a problem or concern with the original rules? Should this be covered in any rule set? Or do some DMs just run fucking weird campaigns and not know how to say, "no, don't be stupid" to their players?
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estar

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #16 on: January 22, 2018, 05:26:50 PM »
So ACKS Wights read

Quote
Wights are undead creatures who were formerly humans or demi-humans in life. A wight's appearance is a weird and twisted reflection of the form it had in life. Wights attack by touching a victim and energy draining one level from the victim. Any human or demi-human slain by a wight becomes a wight in 1d4 days. Wights may only be harmed by magical weapons, spells, and weapons made of silver. Like other undead, they are immune to the effects of sleep, charm, and hold spells.


First two RAW answers.
1) Nowhere it says that wights created by wights are under the control of their creator. So the first wights created by the PC's pet wight will be uncontrolled gunning for the nearest warm body (the PCs likely).

2) Wights are #4 on the Turn table. With Automatic turning at 6th level and destruction at 9th. While 6th level characters and 9th level character are not going to be common. It the insta-kill means that any region suffering from a wight infestation is going to get quickly wiped out once the name level heroes get wind of it. And the lower levels have more than a fair chance of containing the outbreak once it starts. Even a 1st level cleric has a 10% chance of repelling a wight.

Now for the setting dependent reason.

1) Since we are talking Carcosa, it likely that good clerics are few and far between. But it is Carcosa and the simplest reason is that the population density isn't there. Wights pop up, run rampant, wipe out the village and promptly plow into the nastiness that inhabits the Carcosa wilderness.

2) Carcosa has competing evil powers. Not all of them want to see a wight fueled end of the world. More so they may see a wight infestation as an opportunity to gain minions by using magic to seize control of the undead.

darthfozzywig

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #17 on: January 22, 2018, 06:45:30 PM »
Quote from: S'mon;1021108

Wights are normally bound to their barrow cairn or similar (they're based on the barrow wight in Fellowship of the Ring, except those were non-spawning evil spirits infesting the 'wights' - bodies - of Men).
I would have your wight family bound to their shop. I have mobile wight soldiers IMC, eg Cormarrin's Three Hundred, but they are bound to their unit and can't spawn additional unit members by killing people.


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Krimson

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #18 on: January 22, 2018, 07:22:50 PM »
I'd take the meta route and assume if a wight Apocalypse could happen, then why hasn't it already happened a long time ago, and then go from there. I'd go on but some of the previous posts sum it up better.
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Anon Adderlan

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #19 on: January 22, 2018, 07:26:06 PM »
No idea, but I'm honestly less afraid of some Wight Power group taking over than I am of Black Arts Matter or By Any Magic Necessary. Antifay is pretty bad too, but nobody likes Faeries.

Just Another Snake Cult

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #20 on: January 22, 2018, 07:31:08 PM »
The Powers That Be tolerate a scummy class of itinerant murder-hobos that often kill monsters for pay (Or, even better for the taxpayers, just for the monster's treasure). Conveniently, many of these ruffians are religious fanatics of some type or another, or at least consort with them. Conveniently, magical weapons often have a way of making it in to their hands. They keep the monster population in check, and society long ago decided that was worth the occasional raped barmaid, clumsy coup attempt, or eldritch horror accidentally unleashed from an ancient subterranean prison.  

The Seven Swords of Sarnath and their "Pet" hook horror have just pulled up in town in their armored coach and accepted an offer to kill wights for 100 SP a head. Infamous alcoholics led by a Paladin of a dead god and with two named magic swords, three wands, and an AK-47 with half a clip (Don't ask) between them, they don't play well with others, especially other "Crawlers". Lock up the booze and send your daughters out of town. Things could get ugly fast.
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Azraele

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #21 on: January 22, 2018, 07:42:49 PM »
This thread just keeps churning up great ideas.

I think a combination of "not under the control of the lead wight" and "territorially haunt their former shop" should suffice to nip the apocalypse in the bud. It's a good combination of RAW and a reasonable extrapolation of behavior, without adding anything. That is indeed the thread winner.

I love the idea of another group of wildly irresponsible adventurers showing up; I can't believe I didn't think about it, but I love it.

Don't let me wet the thread's fire though. Just know that you all have helped immensely. Thanks!
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Headless

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #22 on: January 22, 2018, 07:52:09 PM »
There is a GIANT WALL OF ICE gaurded by exiled thieves, rapist, murderers & disgraced knights guarding the realms of men which wrights can not pass.


Also the wright was a gift for pleasing a death god.  Stealing all the dead and acting like a tiny undead Napoleon might not please the Death god.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2018, 07:54:26 PM by Headless »

Gronan of Simmerya

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #23 on: January 22, 2018, 08:01:06 PM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1021229
I recall questions in the letters page where one guy was asking "how much does a legless dwarf weigh, and can he sit in a human fighter's backpack and fight from it?" and "how much does a wingless draconian weigh, and can he be flung from a trebuchet?"

Do you think those questions show that there was a problem or concern with the original rules? Should this be covered in any rule set? Or do some DMs just run fucking weird campaigns and not know how to say, "no, don't be stupid" to their players?

Now you know why some of us old bastards are so godsdamned cranky.

"How fucking stupid can players BE?" is a well with no bottom.
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Bren

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #24 on: January 22, 2018, 08:04:59 PM »
While I knew some players who played D&D while stoned or high I never realized they also wrote letters to The Dragon.
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Omega

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #25 on: January 22, 2018, 08:26:37 PM »
Right. In BX and ACKS undead created by undead like the Wight, Wraith, and Spectre come back as a normal one rather than a half strength one like in AD&D. The Wight is the exception in that the new wights are not under its control. In fact you could have a situation where the new wights attack the one that created them to protect others.

Now say you had a Spectre instead. The PC or even an NPC gains control over it and orders it to make more spectres. The minute the Spectre has enough minions its going to order THEM to off the controller. Watch the movie Demolition Man. :cool: And again these minions may not want to harm anyone as in BX and ACKS Chaotic does not = Evil. Though since this is Carcosa we are talking about... ahem. But this even paves the way for why the creature turns on the controller. They might not be evil and thus resent being controlled.

And as noted they are not exactly super tough once you have something that can harm them. 4-5 vials of holy water or one fighter with a silver or magic sword. And PCs can buy silvered weapons at chargen even in ACKS. Silver tipped arrows are just 5gp each. It will take on average 7-8 arrows or stabs with a silvered dagger. But PCs and NPCs can be armed right out the gate. And of course even 1st level clerics have a 10 percent chance to turn them. By level 3 the cleric has a 55 percent chance to turn a wight. Automatic at level 7. Then theres the fact the wights are just 3++ HD creatures in ACKS. Meaning that against for example a person in chainmail, or scale+shield, the wight has only a 50 percent chance of landing a blow. And vulnerability to some spells.

Dave 2

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #26 on: January 22, 2018, 09:07:57 PM »
Best answers already taken, but here's another for reference.

Crusade.  Given that wights manifestly haven't taken over the world yet, NPCs have clearly figured out what's up and how to stop it.  First hint of a wight-bomb inside settled lands gets absolutely swarmed by every cleric, paladin, knight, and lord who can reach.  And not just the good guys, this is all the neutrals and a lot of the human bad guys, who like having a place to live.  Once the wights are down, and auguries cast to be sure, anyone who can be determined to have tried to weaponise wights gets the same treatment.  (This may be less use in Carcosa than some more vanilla D&D worlds.)

I'd also keep an eye on that wight servant.  In ACKS I'd treat it as a henchman and make loyalty rolls when appropriate, even if starting at a bonus for divine orders.  But at the very least, it's service would depend on keeping that death god happy going forward.  Could be tricky.

cranebump

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2018, 09:59:07 PM »
If there are wights, there are wight hunters, surely.
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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #28 on: January 23, 2018, 12:36:08 AM »
Quote from: Azraele;1021078
So I'm running my Carcosa campaign and one of the two thieves pleases a death god and is granted a wight servant as reward. Y'know, regular stuff.

He sends the thing into a family shop and has it kill the family that runs the place. Now, he has six wights. And a shop.

What prevents him from bringing about the end of the world, exactly?

The only thing that can harm wights is magic. So unlike vampires, they're cool with light and crosses and fire and garlic. They can continue to produce one another indefinitely. The wights created are under the control of their creator, making them perfect servants. This is a recipe for an unstoppable zombie apocalypse, except they're wights.

I'm in a bind here. I don't want this to eat my campaign. Thoughts?


Sounds like a job for Solomon Kane.

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baran_i_kanu

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How do YOU prevent the wight apocalypse?
« Reply #29 on: January 23, 2018, 02:11:45 AM »
Quote from: Doom;1021200
You rather messed up in line 1: wight as personal slave.

It's more of a servant, at best, and probably hates its service, hates its master (wights hate all life, after all). The Death God says it must obey, but says nothing of the wights under its control. So it tells the wights under its control: "Kill my master and ignore all further instructions."

In general, wights don't play well with others, only serving powerful masters in rare occasions (and those masters are nonliving, nonwights). So they don't form armies, kingdoms, or whatnot. They generally find a place away from sunlight (they don't like it), away from life (don't like that either), away from other wights (don't like those)...and sit in darkness for all eternity if left alone. They'll tolerate some other undead, namely skeletons and zombies, provided they don't do much.


What Doom said.
Territorial and perhaps filled with self-loathing and surely seething with chaotic hatred would lead to small groups. Perhaps they're just smart enough to avoid creating large groups to stay in the shadows and avoid catching too much attention to themselves leading to extermination.
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