Concept
In my setting where magic has been strongly defined and institutionalized, I wanted to introduce a bit of “horrible mystery” for my players. I drew my greatest inspiration from the master of the horrible and mysterious; Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
I added a pair of rivalrous families to my setting that could help me bring a taste of the truly arcane to my table. One of these families is the Curwen family.
The Curwen Family
Who They Are
The Curwen family are what I like to call “ninjadins”. They are essentially rogue-paladins. They are paranoid, militant zealots who keep their family close, and work to eradicate all that is “unholy” and “undead” from the world. Their lineage has worked for thousands of years to “keep lit their torch that burns against the darkness”. Most often, they take oaths of service to The Raven Queen, Kellemvor or Pelor (Although, Pelor is least common). Alternatively, they may be considered a kind of Paladin of the Crown, with oaths of service to the family’s eternal mission.
What They Like to Do
The Curwen family keeps a vigilant watch on the world, seeking out and destroying undeath wherever it occurs. They maintain a secure vault in their family crypt, where un-killable fiends, or artifacts of immensely evil power, can be kept away from the world. Throughout the centuries, the Curwen family has made a number of enemies, mortal and otherwise. Having survived a number of close-calls that have nearly wiped out their family, the current generation of Curwens are very slow to trust, paranoid and outright meticulous with their plans. They always have a back-up plan in case a hunt goes awry, and back-up plans in case their back-up plans go awry.
Besides their main family manor and crypt in Ostia, the Curwens have a number of consecrated safe-houses around the world. Each of these houses is sealed by a “living door” that has been “incarnated” by the spirit of a previous family member. Such a door will not grant ingress to anyone outside the family, or to any undead/fiends.
The Curwen Family maintains a very large estate in the old-manor district of Ostia. Publicly, they are quiet and reserved members of the pre-imperial human aristocracy. They are obfuscative with their money, and do not often spend their immense wealth. In fact, very few people outside The Family know of The Curwen’s greater work.
The Curwen family’s secret weapon against the darkness is their “Sacred Steel”; a proprietary enchanted metal that the family has developed with their centuries of experience fighting the undead.
Wounds inflicted by Sacred Steel are unhealable by magical means, and causes intense burns to fiends, undead, lycanthropes, fey beings and celestials.
The Manor
The manor layout that I have used for the Curwen’s home is a dungeon I paid for, therefore you won’t find it in my google drive. In time, I will probably design my own Curwen manor.
The Curwen Estate in Ostia very strongly consecrated ground. Soil taken from there can be used as holy water. Additionally, the house itself is protected from (undead) invasion in a number of ways.
The Family
I admit, these guys are not well-fleshed out. My players are not fans of the Curwen family, so we rarely see them. Feel free to come up with your own.
Liam Curwen- The family patriarch. He is a "paladin of the crown" who has sworn his life away in service to his family's mission. He hates fiends, undead, and the unnatural, in all forms. He has proudly led the family for the last forty years, ever since the untimely death of his elder brother Marcus Curwen. He thought he would name Guineve as the next head of the family, but he is unwilling to take retirement until his daughter is well again, or until Justinus becomes a better leader.
Guineveve Curwen- Liams eldest child. She is a rogue who wields a variety of Sacred Steel daggers, swords or rapiers as she needs them. She recently lost her husband and daughter to a vampire named Aleksandra. Liam has forbidden her from field work, due to her unstable emotional state. She is typically seen at the Curwen estate in Ostia.
Justinus Curwen- Justinus is a paladin who is following in his father's footsteps. He is eager to please his father, and quick to reach judgement about situations. With his sister grieving the loss of her husband & child, Justinus is making a grab for power. He recently returned to Ostia, with Aleksandra in chains. He is somewhat too ambitious for his own good.
Eli Curwen- Youngest child of Liam Curwen. He is a duitiful priest of The Raven Queen, and proudly follows in his family's tradition. Although he is mistrustful, like his father and siblings, he is the most easily talked to of the Curwen family.
The Family Crypt
A number of undead or unholy enemies cannot be truly slain, therefore they are imprisoned. The Curwen family maintains a prison for undead or unholy beings within their family crypt. The Crypt is designed as an armory, a family burial ground, an arcane prison and a training ground for their youngest family members. For the purposes of this dungeon, Tiefling players, non-Fay Pact Warlocks, and Death Monks are considered fiends or undead.
Although I originally used this crypt as an adventure, for the players to journey through and free their friend Asa Maplethorn, this dungeon can have many uses for a GM.
Room 1-
This is the entryway into the crypt. It is a fairly normal-looking, classical (pre-Empire) style tomb with small shrines along the walls, dedicated to the spirits of the ancestors (As opposed to the more modern gods of death). Two dozen small urns are housed in these shrines, with their names inscribed on gold plaques below them. (Andrius Kyr’Vn I, II, III, Janus Kyr’Ven, Marcos Kyr’Ven, Samos Kur’Ven, Matthias Curwen, etcetera….) There is a stone door on the north wall with a “classical”-style human face carved into it. When the PCs approach, the face begins to speak in an old human dialect. The door is imbued with the spirit of Andrius Kyr’Vn, the progenitor of this clan. The door will refuse to open unless the players can trick it into saying his family name, Kyr’Vn.
Hallway A-
Hallway A is unnaturally brightly lit, and narrow. A character walking through this hallway cannot help but brush against the walls, which are inscribed with anti-necromantic runes. (DM’s discretion on what this does.) To enter room 2, the players will have to recite the tenets of The Raven Queen. To go from Room 2 to Hallway A, the players must convince the door that it is safe to open.
Room 2-
This room is clean and well-kept. There are two large amphorae, one is filled with a fine, white powder, and the other with a clear fluid (Vinegar and Baking Soda; for polishing the weapons). There are multiple chests in this room, that are all locked. Inside the chests are an array of Sacred Steel weapons. Some of the chests are mimics. Feel free to let your players freak out about the stuff in the amphorae... After a failed nature check, I told them that one of the amphorae contained a mild acid.
Room 3-
This room has an array of Sacred Steel cages, and large, St. Andrew’s crosses with Sacred Steel clamps on the top. Some of the crosses are stained with blood, others are coated in a fine, grey powder (Vampire Dust). Most of the crosses are scored with deep gouges in the wood. There is a large oven/fireplace built into the eastern wall. A few of the crosses have strange ritual circles gouged into the floor below them. With sufficient arcana checks, the players may learn that some of these runes are part of a ritual of holding… However, most of the ritual circle is indecipherable (unless the players have read from the big book in room 6). Once fully deciphered, the ritual will very plainly be a home-brewed ritual of binding and pain, combined with circle of truth... It is a torture ritual.
Hallway B-
This hallway will extend itself eternally if the PCs do not walk backwards through it.
Hallway C-
This hallway will have empty torch sconces. If the players snuff out all their torches, instructions for the cultivation of dynamic fungus will appear on the wall. This will include extreme admonishments against the use of open flames.
Room 4-
This room has many wooden planks, covered everywhere in brown mold spores. The door behind the PCs instantly shuts. When the brown mold touches any wooden material, it will expand and consume the wood. If it is hit with fire, it will expand and deals massive amounts of fire damage. If Sacred Steel touches the mold, it will shrink away from the weapon. The key to the door into room 7 is hidden under a clump of mold.
Room 5-
This is an apparent “alchemy” room, with dozens of shelves of medium-sized vials. Each vial has a tag on it, written in some kind of code. Inside of the vials are odd-looking salts of various colors.
Purple Salt- A bearded devil
Red Salt- A pit fiend
Blue Salt- A banshee
Black Salt- A lich
Green Salt- A wight
Grey Salt- A vampire
And so on and so forth… Feel free to make up whatever kind of monster should correspond to whatever color. The Curwens sometimes keep these monsters as "salts" because knowledge can always be extracted from them at a later date... Or, because they know that properly killing them will only send them back to whatever plane they came from; it will not actually stop the monster.
The door to room 6 will only open if a PC is carrying a vial of salt.
Room 6-
The floor of this room is honeycombed with metal grates. Below the metal grates are very narrow shafts that are around 60-feet deep. In 4 of the shafts are misshapen ghouls that begin to react to the presence of the PCs. Along the north wall is an “altar” with arcane runes inscribed about it, and a large ancient book. This altar is required for use in rituals that use the salts. The book will be a combination spellbook, diary and family tree of House Curwen. It will detail rituals needed to draw knowledge from unwilling subjects, or from the vials of essential salts stored in room 5. Feel free to add any terrible/horrible things that reveal the darker nature of the Curwen family’s work. Undead and fiends cannot approach the altar.
Room 7-
This room is a more proper alchemy room, that is fully stocked and well-organized. There is a large, comprehensive alchemy station and recipe book.
The book contains a coded index and the key to deciphering the “salt” vials. The index explains the organization system of room 7, and how to find vials containing specific creatures, or even infamous individuals. The book will also detail the ritual required to bind someone into a pile of salts, and how to reconstitute them. (However, this ritual must still be tailored to the individual. Especially with regards to a powerful lich or vampire.)
Room 8-
This room is covered in runes that evoke enchantments of protection, healing and repellence to the undead. Any undead or fiend characters are overcome with nausea and wracked with pain as they enter this room, while the rest of the PCs are recovered to full health. There is a massive ring of keys on the wall above the stairs.
If the players do not have any allies who are Curwens, then a vampiric Curwen might be found in room 5, reconstituted and persuaded to help.
Stairs-
These stairs descend into a labyrinthine series of cells that correspond to the dozen or so grates in room 4. The door at the top of the stairs slams shut behind them. There is a face carved in to this side of it, the face is similar to the one from room 2. It will only open the door if he believes it is safe to open. Hanging next to the door are several Sacred Steel spiked collars
In my setting where magic has been strongly defined and institutionalized, I wanted to introduce a bit of “horrible mystery” for my players. I drew my greatest inspiration from the master of the horrible and mysterious; Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
I added a pair of rivalrous families to my setting that could help to bring a taste of the truly arcane to my table. One of these families is the Maplethorn clan. They were largely designed to be counterpoints to the more severe and mildly psychotic Curwen family.
The Maplethorns are an eccentric clan of “steampunk wizards”. Due to the fluid, and happy-go-lucky nature of this family, they sometimes adopt half-elves, tieflings or gnomes in their ranks, but they are “mostly” human. Fey-pact warlock, bard and wizard are all common vocations for a younger member of the Maplethorn clan; the elders are almost all exclusively wizards. Very rarely, you will find a Maplethorn who is a dedicated priest of some god/goddess of knowledge. Maplethorn warlocks who have made “commitments” generally have had enough time to pay off whatever debts they have accrued with the Court of Seasons, and have shed their former ways as warlocks.
The Maplethorn clan, to put it simply, like to modify their own bodies with a combination of transmuting, healing and necromantic magic. “Elders” of the Maplethorn clan have ascended beyond the need for their fleshy bodies, and inhabit automata bodies made of a combination of flesh, steel and steam. Many Elders, if their bodies are well-made, can live for extremely long periods of time, or even indefinitely. Most members of the Maplethorn clan do not seek to become elders; they are often content with a certain degree of modification, and no more.
The choice to “ascend” and attempt to become an “Elder” is an extremely personal and spiritual journey. A Maplethorn must devote a significant amount of time not only engineering their own designs for their “eternal body", but they must also achieve a mastery of Necromancy, Transmutation and Restoration in order to ensure their own survival of the procedure. Graphic Warning. It's from Star Wars III. Ideally, the only flesh that remains after the “ascension ritual” is an enhanced brain, a spinal cord and a rudimentary digestive/fuel intake system. Ascension rituals are considered to be very dangerous; an ascendee must present their original research to the Elders, and allow their critique, before being permitted to perform it. It may take multiple rounds of critique before the Elders are satisfied with an ascendee's proposed designs and ritual.
An Elder Maplethorn is more or less a lich whose phylactery is their mechanical body. However, the Maplethorn clan keeps a tight watch on itself; they have learned from previous mistakes that they must not allow members of their family who harbor dark ambitions to complete their ascension ritual.
Regardless of the outcome of the ritual, publicly, an ascendee is dead. They are referred to in the past tense, and given a funeral fitting for a member of high Ostian society.
Younger members of the clan, who have not begun their research into ascension, are encouraged to study magic in any and every form, travel the world and obtain as many new experiences as possible. Even if a Maplethorn decides to never ascend, they can still expect a protracted, long life; there is plenty of time to enjoy youth. They may opt to have limited modifications done to their bodies; telescoping eyes, flesh-covered metal limbs, enhanced sensory inputs and replacement organs are the most common. Enchanted illusory artifacts, charms and gems are also common choices for “grafting” into their flesh bodies.
The very youngest members of the Maplethorn Clan are forbidden from body modification until they have come of age, and are capable of understanding the complications that can arise from having the modifications performed. (Not all “modifications” go smoothly.) Also, modifications that are done on immature bodies are extremely difficult.
Public Life -
In Ostia, the Maplethorns are regarded as an eccentric family of wizards. (Could you have a family of wizards that ISN’T eccentric!?)
Only younger members of the family, with few visible modifications, make public appearances. The Maplethorn family is cautious to not invoke the ire of their neighbors; the Curwens. The Elders have lived a very long time, and they are very wary of public opinion turning against their clan. They are also wary of a public that doesn't understand them.
That being said, the Maplethorns are a fun-loving bunch. Like their counterparts, the Curwens, the Maplethorns are a wealthy pre-imperial aristocratic family. They own an expansive shipping company, and are very free with their coin. No social event in Ostia goes down without at least a few Maplethorns showing up and really getting things started.
Unsurprisingly, the Maplethorn family are great patrons of the Imperial Wizard’s college. It is traditional that whenever a new Elder has ascended, that individual donates a large amount of their accrued assets towards a memorial scholarship. (Elders, by definition are high-level wizards; they have money. They do not really keep many material things, as they have evolved beyond that kind of need.)
Finally, the Maplethorn clan regards blood-ties as a somewhat silly concept. Although they love their family, they have strong ties to their friends and the people that they meet during their "childhood" journeys. Because many of the more highly-modified Maplethorns are incapable of reproduction, the Maplethorn clan maintains a patronage of several orphanages. Many who call themselves members of the Maplethorn clan were adopted in the clan, and raised rather dotingly by the Elders.
The Maplethorns are generally excellent doctors and surgeons. (In a world where clerics and paladins abound, this is less valuable than you think!)
Asa Maplethorn-
Asa is a 25 year-old human male member of the Maplethorn clan. Until recently, he was a known society dandy, playboy and partier who fully enjoyed the status of being an heir to a well-respected family. He did not have many modifications; a leg that was constructed using the twisted flesh of the misshapen leg he was born with. However, everything changed for Asa when he was attacked out of nowhere by Liam Curwen. Asa was “mortally” wounded, and required extensive modification of his heart and liver in order to save his life. Were it not for the quick actions of a brave group of adventurers, he would have died on the spot, and never have made it home. Asa spends time in the Maplethorn manor, researching ways to improve his organ modifications and resume his public life. Having spent his childhood as a cripple, he is very eager to free himself of his current confines.
Benjamin Maplethorn-
Benjamin is the public “head” of the family. He is in his late 50’s. His modifications are only recently creeping into the territory of those that must be hidden. He has a “glass eye” that gives him blindsight, ears that can “zoom in” and hear the heartbeats of those he is speaking with, and extensively modified hands that are far more precise than his human hands ever could have been. Benjamin is a surgeon more than he is a wizard, and does not plan to seek ascension. Within the clan, Benjamin is regarded as Asa’s father.
Ruth Maplethorn-
Ruth is very serious, for a Maplethorn. She is deeply engrossed in her research for ascension. She is currently working on the 6th draft of her schematics for her eternal body. She believes that she nearly perfected her designs, and looks forward to submitting them to The Elders soon. What she consistently fails to realize is that she purely driven to attain this goal of ascension, and the Elders will never approve her proposal until she discovers her own intrinsic reasons to live eternally. She is around 40 years old, and regards Benjamin as her big brother.
“Ma” Maplethorn-
Ma & Pa Maplethorn are the oldest Elders of the clan. Ma & Pa originally discovered their secret to "eternal life" some thousands of years ago. Ma is a very nurturing soul who lives to raise and dote on her “grandchildren”. Despite her grandmotherly attitude, Ma was/is an extremely powerful wizard who does not suffer disrespect. Due to degradation over the millennia, and having to replace quite a few parts, Ma is somewhat senile. Benjamin does not believe that she will continue to function for many more years, and the entire clan fears the day that their mother’s gentle spirit will move on to the great beyond.
“Pa” Maplethorn-
Pa is Ma’s husband. They have been happily married for the last several thousand years. Like his wife, Pa is running out of steam. His joints are rusty, and he does not move with the vigor that Benjamin remembers from his youth. Pa has a great sense of humor, and is often caught playing (harmless) pranks on other members of the family. Pa is easily goaded into sharing tales of his days as a wandering adventurer wizard. If he is capable of getting details correct, he is actually a very good repository of archaeological knowledge. He does not like to acknowledge the flaws in Ma’s build, and truly dreads the day that his existence will continue without her.
