Decide what my Necromantic Eldritch Machine of Doom does.

[DM_Matt]

Last session the baddies tricked the PCs into changing the "batteries" (lich phylacteries) on an ancient Eldritch Machine created by a Necromancer who likes to create new forms of undead, but destroyed himself while trying to make himself a better form. It consists of a large pyramid with four pyramids surrounding it, and each of the five emits a beam of light into the sky, all striking a big roiling dark cloud. However, I eventually have to figure out what this thing does.

So, I decided to leave it up to you'll. Any ideas?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Well, my first thought...

The pyramid charges the cloud with necromantic energies. The cloud becomes a perpetual storm, moving across the land but never depleting itself. Anywhere it rains, the water seeps into the ground and animates all corpses therein as skeletons and zombies. Anywhere lightning strikes, it emits not just electricity but negative energy, and all those slain by it rise as shadows, wraiths, or spectres. All efforts at becoming undead (for instance, the lichdom ritual) performed in this storm are automatically successful, and result in more power than normal. The storm is considered an area of desecration, with all the undead benefits thereof.

 

[demiurge1138]

The necromantic energy suffusing the dark cloud has turned it into a permanent cloudkill. Now the PCs need to figure out how to dispell it before it rolls into a heavily populated area...

Demiurge out.

 

[was]

The cloud moves like a roving fog of death, continuously draining the life forces from any living creatures it encounters and suffuses them with negative energy turning them into a random form of undead.

 

[Turanil]

In addition, the sky is perpetually dark because of this dark cloud. As such, undead that normally suffer from the effect of daylight aren't affected anymore. And also for the fun: this cloud is not very high in the sky (like normal clouds), but hovers just 300 or 400 feet above; sometimes descending at 30-40 feet, depending on circumstances. Of course, when one is "inside" the cloud, it has some negative energy effects (such as undead stronger, cure spells don't work, etc.)

 

[Felon]

Well, you could always make it a soul crusher. I suspect that would scare the pants off of the PC's.