This is a world where two ideas of death are at war. The Raven Queen is a young, ambitious goddess who has recently taken up winter and fate into her portfolio, to compliment death. Her black winged angels take souls to their final rest without mercy but are known for allowing a ghost one more soft breeze through the hair of a loved one or a final look back at the mortal world before venturing to Her Winter Kingdom.

Vecna sees death as his personal vault of secrets and lore. He plunders the dead for arcane knowledge and perverts cycles of life and death to make his undead minions and hordes of lifeless bodies to march for his army’s glory. His cult is made up of one-eyed mages who thirst for secrets and power.

Their war would do terrible harm to a world.

Unnatural Events Table

1. An unnaturally long or cold winter takes hold of the world.
2. Corpses whisper secrets when you whisper secrets to them.
3. Anyone near-death can see the paths of fate that their life might take should they survive.
4. Wizards who take out their own eye gain a level and powerful Necromantic spells in their spellbooks.
5. Statues of angels’ wings turn to onyx and gain strange powers.
6. Cemeteries become cold and covered in ice and snow.
7. Fortune telling becomes painfully accurate and fortune tellers are Raven-bound to be truthful.
8. Flocks of ravens announce there whereabouts of undead beasts.

 

Raven Queen’s Forces

1. Holy Knight(s) of the Order of the Raven Queen’s Consorts (1d4)
2. Undead hunting team (Van Helsing style)
3. Pilgrims, visiting the great necropoli of the world
4. Murder of Ravens doing something ravens don’t normally do
5. Holy winter nuns of the Raven Queen, taking a body to its final rest miles away
6. Raven Queen’s faithful peasant spear-folk

 

 

Vecna’s Forces

1. Death Knight and entourage
2. Zombies (2d10)
3. One-eyed wizard cultists (1d6)
4. One-handed Ghouls
5. Demi-Lich general and entourage being brought to Vecna (roll 2 more times on table for entourage)
6. Ogre Zombie Lord and peasant levies

 

Wild Cards

1. Kaz, here to mess with his ancient rival
2. Githyanki ambassadors, here to treat with Vecna and arrange a marriage between the Lich Queen and the Lich-god
3. Orcus cultists, here to sew discord and weaken both sides
4. Gnolls eating the dead of a recent battle
5. Orc mercenary company that eats their own dead.
6. Priests of a dead god, hoping to get their deity brought back.

 

They are looking for:

1. A local necropolis
2. A battlefield with many dead bodies
3. A gate to the Quietlands
4. A recently dead dragon
5. A key fortress/bridge/crossroads/mountain pass
6. You

 

Art

General Research Division, The New York Public Library. “Corvus carnivorus, Northern Raven.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1860. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-5743-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

These ideas developed, mutated and became Raven Queen vs. the Ghoul King