Topic: Andraax and Ondoval in your game?

[DangerMan]

Do you have Andraax and / or Ondoval play any direct role in your games? If yes, what sort of role? Do tell!

Players at my table are kindly asked not to read this thread...

[RandalThor]

As of yet, I have not been able to run a game with those two having any sort of direct influence, but I want to. Of course, it need to be a high-level game so the PCs aren't completely swept away...

I would use Andraax sort of like Gandalf, but with less direct contact, more like a guy who occasionally pops in with enigmatic clues and advice - and warnings. His insanity should end up being as much a pain in the rear as his great intellect and experience is beneficial, and surely an obstacle to overcome.

Ondoval has to be the "big bad" like Sauron, with the PCs being the guys who eventually find the Soulsword, though I am not sure I would want them to be the ones who have to use it. Perhaps, they are also needed to help clear Andraax's mind, at least long enough for him to use the Soulsword to defeat Ondoval.

[Alten]

When my players adventured into Quellbourne, I used Andraax just like in the "Stormriders" novel (with the boy, his father and mother being NPCs). It worked just fine, especially the epic ending on the haunted theater scene. Now he's dropped away into the background, but should surface again as the PCs, after finishing the Sea-Drake campaign, embark on the Shadowstone quest...

[DangerMan]

As of yet, I have not been able to run a game with those two having any sort of direct influence, but I want to. Of course, it need to be a high-level game so the PCs aren't completely swept away...

I would use Andraax sort of like Gandalf, but with less direct contact, more like a guy who occasionally pops in with enigmatic clues and advice - and warnings. His insanity should end up being as much a pain in the rear as his great intellect and experience is beneficial, and surely an obstacle to overcome.

Ondoval has to be the "big bad" like Sauron, with the PCs being the guys who eventually find the Soulsword, though I am not sure I would want them to be the ones who have to use it. Perhaps, they are also needed to help clear Andraax's mind, at least long enough for him to use the Soulsword to defeat Ondoval.

That sounds like a lot of fun and a high level campaign indeed!! Hope you get to run that!

[DangerMan]

When my players adventured into Quellbourne, I used Andraax just like in the "Stormriders" novel (with the boy, his father and mother being NPCs). It worked just fine, especially the epic ending on the haunted theater scene. Now he's dropped away into the background, but should surface again as the PCs, after finishing the Sea-Drake campaign, embark on the Shadowstone quest...

I'm not familiar with the references, as we are playing SW for the first time and running Xa-ar. Could you elaborate?

[RandalThor]

That sounds like a lot of fun and a high level campaign indeed!! Hope you get to run that!

Me too, but more than that, I would love to play through it, myself.

You see, I have a dream. It is a simple dream: To play a high-level RM character for once. (Of course, for more than one session.) The highest I have ever played is around 10th level, and I don't classify that has high-level in RM (any version). To me, HL is around 30th+.

I'm not familiar with the references, as we are playing SW for the first time and running Xa-ar. Could you elaborate?

Spoilers for those who haven't read the book yet. Stormriders was a novel that came out, what, in the mid-to-late 80's, I believe. In it, a family of 3 (or was it 4, a mom, dad, and 2 kids?) from a more modern world got transported to Kulthea (Shadow World) through a Flow Storm. They gained some powers - not world shattering - and got embroiled with some powerful Kulthean NPCs. Fun story.

Quellbourne is an area just to the north and east of Xa'ar, there is even a pass in the northern mountains mentioned in Xa'ar that connects the two areas. It is a rough and tumble frontier area that used to have a large city of powerful mages. Now, that city is more myth than anything else, and many are trying to locate it so they can loot it. The Shadow World supplement, Quellbourne, Land of the Silver Mist tells you all about the place.

[DangerMan]

Ahhh! Thanks again, Randal!  We've never gone much past lvl 10 either, btw.

Im gonna try to get my hands on that supplement. Would be great to have some more info and maps on the surrounding area!

[RandalThor]

Here is a place you can get some SW stuff:
http://www.nobleknight.com/ViewProducts.asp?ProductLineID=111&ManufacturerID=25&CategoryID=12&GenreID=

[fbrice]

Hello,

I'm an old rolemaster and specially shadow world fan. I just stumbled on those forums and I'm quite happy to see shadow world still alive and kicking.
Back to business: I had a long campaign involving players from lvl1 to lvl20-22. Ondoval made his come back while they were around lvl18. I thought that Ondoval was too much to handle even for 30-40 lvl players with Soulsword so they encountered some sidekicks. One of my player had the gryphon sword back from the jaiman campaign so I devised that Ondoval was gathering his forces and part of this process he tried to gather all the magical artefacts he could.
So the equivalent of a herald of the night, it felt more adequate for a group of lvl20 players was recovering Implementor to "create" more herald equivalent and sealing away in Ondoval vault other non evil artefacts.
It ended with a race for several of the artefacts specially in some nasty jungle with the shards. At the end they battled the sidekicks and gained access to a portal to Ondoval fortress only to find out that they are overpowered “time to warn other powerful people like loremaster and such”.
I dared not involve more Ondoval as he is too brutal.
For Andraax I only used once or twice either to give some cryptic clues as an explanation for some bad guys retreat
"We were cornered by an herald of the night, why did he flee?"
"I have no idea but I think I saw some strange traveler nearby."

[MisterK]

I used Andraax, yes. He dropped a couple of times, usually as a cryptic information giver or potential meddler in all things Essaence.

I never used Ondoval. The man is so obsessed and single-minded that, while it can make a great arch-villain, it is fairly difficult to use him as a plot device - and using him as an opponent would likely result in a very fast TPK.

I used a handful of other "well-known figures" as well. Voriig Kye is an all-time favourite, but several dragonlords have popped up in my stories. One character eavesdropped a conversation between Elor and the Nameless One. A couple of well-known Loremasters (Vurkanan Tyes, Randae Terisonen), Lorgalis in several scrying attempts that went dramatically wrong, and a well-known High Priest Arnak wrap up the list

[NuSoardGraphite]

I have used Andraax, but the players never knew it was Andraax as he was in one of his many guises.  Thus far, Ondoval has been a plot device.  In the last campaign, the PC's were negotiating with Sulthon Niishang when Ondoval made an attempt at destroying one of The Eyes.  Niishang freaked out (he could of course instantly sense the disruption in the Essaence Flows and deduced what happened) and ended negotiations and the PC's were left to contend with the massive Essaence Storms that followed.

I ran that scene to set up Ondoval as The Big Bad and to put him in the mind of the players. However for the most part, I use Lorgalis as the main villain and the players were introduced to the Jherak Ahrenreth during the course of the campaign.  Ultimately I would like this to segway into a search for the SoulSword and the discovery that Andraax is not dead.  However, first I would like to distract the PC's with a new threat from the Dragon Lords.....half  of the Dragon Lords decide (after Ondoval's near-success at destroying one of The Eyes) that humanoid beings are the cause of the worlds woes and decide that Kulthea would be better without them.  ALL of them. So there will be a Shadow War where the forces of nature seemingly rise up against man and elvenkind.  So the PC's have to figure out a way to stop Uyla Scheck, Drul Churk and Oran Jatar from gather other dragons to their side.  Totally Ondoval's fault, though the PC's won't know it!