The Campaign (CBN)

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: Long ago, when the Old Dynasty began to fail on the mainland, Uruk Kigal was exiled with a whole cadre of his supporters for practicing deviant and forbidden magic. Uruk departed the jungle valleys of his youth in search of a new home. He crossed the sea and discovered Sahu, a large island of mysterious beauty that resembled, in many respects, his beloved home.
: The island was divided into a low-lying coastal region, an inner high plateau embraced by jungle, and a high ridge of mountains rising from the center of the island like the spine of a vishap. On the high plateau, by the shores of a sepia lake, Uruk built Nycopolis and made his city the capitol of a new monarchy. He built the Great Summer Palace out of solid ivory and erected a mighty Colossus in his image to guide visitors safely to his island. Uruk was the first and most powerful of the Necromancer Kings, and he ruled Sahu, some say wisely, for many hundreds of years.
: Now, Sahu was not entirely uninhabited when Uruk founded the New Dynasty. The colonists found the traces of an even more ancient civilization on the island, based on the low, sandy shores. They discovered entire ruined cities of antique metal towers, sundered and dilapidated, lapped along the coast by the hungry sea. In these mushroom-shaped spires, exotic totems and strange shrines were unearthed, temples of the forgotten god Thasmudyan, King of Worms, Lord over Life and Undeath. Many of the New Dynasty began to worship this ancient god whose first followers had long since abandoned Sahu to live forever beneath the cold waves of the sea (or so the ancient legends say).
: The worship of Thasmudyan, known as the Cult of Worms, soon flourished again under an ambitious priestess named Vermissa, one of the first nobles to accompany Uruk into exile on Sahu. But the King was jealous of Vermissa's mounting influence, and he conspired with his most powerful nobles to destroy her. Vermissa disappeared soon after from Nycopolis. When she died, the Cult of Worms floundered without her direction, and Uruk reigned supreme once again in his mighty new kingdom of necromancers.
: Thus the age-old conflict between king and high-priest began again in Sahu, transplanted from the mainland by its colonists, and it sprang forth anew with all the vehemence of old. As it destroyed the Old Dynasty, so too did it unravel the Necromancer Kings. The New Dynasty eventually withered and died, leaving only mournful spirits to glide over the still black waters by the ruins of Nycopolis. Now only their histories and their mysterious artifacts remain as sad, silent testimonies to their former power and glory.
: —From Kazerabet's Art of Necromancy
Thus far, we have been primarily concerned with developing the individual components of the necromancer and death priest. We have presented kits, powers, spells, and magical items, but we haven't really discussed how to fuse these elements into characters and use them in a campaign. In this chapter, we address these issues.
First we present a sample campaign with guidelines for creating a detailed and convoluted storyline lasting for many adventures. The chapter also contains some adventure hooks which the DM can drop as rumors or expand into full-length scenarios if desired. These scenarios illustrate a multitude of roles for the necromancer and death priest in the campaign.
Finally, we devote the remainder of the chapter to seven detailed NPC necromancers and death priests who will pop up intermittently in this chapter as they have been doing so throughout the rest of this book. Our goal is to provide the DM with an interesting setting, specific adventure ideas, and necromancer characters that can be easily incorporated into an existing campaign.
General methods for creating settings and NPCs have already been covered in other blue-cover DM supplements. For more general information on running a successful campaign, the DM should consult the Creative Campaigning sourcebook. A starting DM may also refer to the Complete Book of Villains for general guidelines on creating compelling nemeses for a campaign.