[Plot] Serving Yugoloth Mercs (my players OUT!)

If you've recently fought Black Iron Predators, and the names "Khrel-Hadad" and "Valdemar" strike hatred and fear into your heart, and incessant acid rain is destroying your world -- if you're one of my players, in other words -- Am-scray! Now!

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My 10th & 11th level PCs, through great tenacity and perseverance, managed to get themselves captured by a really big Yugoloth and his mercenary company. The leader, Khrel-Hadad, is an advanced Nycaloth fighter (CR ~24). Now, he's currently bound to serve a bunch of goblinoids, but recently several juicy opportunities have cropped up and he wants out. He's going to use the party to kill the hobgoblins -- which the party was trying to do anyway -- but then they're bound to serve him for a bit after that, too.

So, they're in for some conscripted plane-hopping, as they become unpaid mercenaries in the Blood War. I've got the basics sketched out, but I'd appreciate any suggestions, as it's my first really big planar adventure.

The set-up is: the party has sworn themselves to a month's service, which is 28 days (Prime time). The first 4-5 days are going to be spent killing the goblinoid leadership (4 tough "boss" hobgoblins & 1 advanced erinyes). Taking out the leaders will mean that the party doesn't have to fight all the "troops" -- some ogre-magi, some wyverns, some shadow mastiffs, and a pair of hellwasp swarms, as well as the obvious goblin, hobgob and bugbear mooks.

The party will have to kill, in order:
- Erinyes (liason to Dispater)
- Hobgob Cleric/Thaumaturgist
- Hobgob Sorcerer
- Hobgob Ftr/Disciple of Dispater & Hobgob Rog/Disciple of Dispater

... which should take 4-5 days. They'll have indirect help, in the form of scrying and watch schedules, from the Yugoloths, who can't directly attack the goblinoids due to their ongoing contract.

After that's done with, the party will be taken to Khrel-Hadad's stronghold Gehenna, and there briefed on their planar missions. Here's what I've come up with, based on the conflict between Pazuzu (Khrel-Hadad's lord) and Lolth.

Planar Mission 1: Sinful Interdiction (Carceri, 2-4 days)

The party is gated to Carceri, where they must make their way to the area of the Sinmaker's shop, hide themselves, and await a specific group of "merchants" (1 cambion, 2 bebeliths, 2 driders), who will be along within a couple of days. They are assigned to assassinate the cambion and take his cubic gate -- the other "merchants" are considered mere targets of opportunity. The party returns to Gehenna with the cubic gate.

- Sideline: they fail to hide, the Sinmaker sends a representative to question them: "Do you intend to harm the Sinmaker or his business? Do you intend to disrupt or prevent a sale? Do you intend violence within the Sinmaker's domain?" -- and then charge them a fee to conduct violence within his domain, with the stipulation that they may only assassinate their targets after the sale has been made.

- Help: what other random events can/will occur while the party is traveling through and hiding in Carceri?


Planar Mission 2: Cube Scouts (Various, 3-6 days)

The party investigates the cube's gates, which are:
1: Kitharc-1 (Prime planet)
2: Barsoom (Prime planet)
3: Abyss layer 66 (Lolth's dominion)
4: Carceri
5: Elemental Plane of Wood
6: Cynosure (my version of Sigil)

They are specifically instructed to scout, not engage. However, I'd like some aweful things for them to see and/or experience in the Abyss, and some notes on how people handle Sigil (the game is high-magic).

The Prime planets will be described at the bottom of this post.


Planar Mission 3: Arraxis of Evil (various locations)

This is where things get really fun. They're instructed to use the cubic gate to attack Lolth's minions on many different planes, using the cubic gate. The Yugoloths want to disrupt Lolth's plans without showing their own hand.

So, I'd really like suggestions for a bunch of anti-Lolth missions on the various planes that the cubic gate can reach, from variations on "kill patrols" to more creative, less combat-oriented missions.


Planar Mission 4: Reward for Service

Yugoloths are not the most trustworthy of masters. By this time, there should only be 2-3 days of service remaining. The party will be sent on one final mission -- they will be told that it's their second to last mission, the easy one before the big one, of course -- but it will be a suicide mission. The party can't be ordered to their deaths, or asked to perform an impossible task (e.g.: "kill Asmodeus"), due to the nature of their contract, but they can be ordered to do something that is *probably* fatal. I'd like creative and very bastardly suggestions on what I can throw at them.

(If they survive, I want them to really hate these particular yugoloths! )



Worlds in the Balance

Earth: Where the PCs are from. Standard planet, continents shaped like those of our Earth. Recently suffered an impact-induced cataclysm when something big fell from the sky into the pacific ocean. The tsunamis were followed by torrential rain, flavored with carbonic acid, which show no sign of abating. Ocean levels are low, sunlight is unavailable.
* Monster Palette: Goblinoids (always evil), dinosaurs, giants, dragons, fey, nagas, undead

Kitharc-1: Earth-sized planet phase-locked to a Mars-sized moon (Kitharc-2, also phase-locked). Intense volcanic activity on both, hot & humid jungle covers most of Kitharc-1 (CO2 levels high due to volcanic activity, blah blah). Kitharc-2 has recently been taken over by a hideous creation of Lolth's, which will figure into the plot later. The native sentients of Kitharc are the Arrakin, a race of psionic spider people who had recently entered a golden age of prosperity (before Lolth did her big evil thing) and were in the process of exploring other worlds for colonization -- including Earth -- just as First Empire Humans colonized many other planes & worlds.
* Monster Palette: Arrakin, linnorms, plant monsters, psionic monsters, destrachan, yuan-ti

Barsoom: Terraformed Mars. Light gravity, sparse atmosphere. Most sentients live in the Wound, where air is denser, but they have to hunt & farm on the surface. The Northern Ocean is okay to live near, but it's foggy & chilly. Lolth has one citidal in the Wound -- she does not rule over all Drow in my campaign.
* Monster Palette: Drow, deep gnomes, derro, displacer beasts, ankhegs, "underdark" monsters (aberrations, grimlocks, umber hulks), kaorti and associated critters (skybleeders et al.)

Thanks for any help! -- N

Possible anti-Lolth missions include:

Sabotaging a bebilith breeding ground in the Demonweb Pits.
Smuggling drowcraft weapons past drow borders into the hands of the derro (who are planning to go to war with the drow).
Infiltrating a kaorti cyst and offering up a temple of Lolth as a tempting target (the party disguises themselves as kaorti, perhaps?)
Inciting a slave rebellion in a drow city.
Assassinating a powerful drow priestess.
Reigniting a culture war between the drow and the driders.

As for the "reward for faithful service", I'd say that a really nasty thing to do to the party is to have them tasked to break into and steal documents from an infernal library (as the devils are very precise, and always keep perfect record of everything). The devils have a contract for a soul that the yugoloths can use as blackmail fodder against that mortal, the devils, or both, or there are surviving records there of some great yugoloth trechery that they don't want anyone to remember.

Demiurge out.

A possible 'reward for service' option might be to send the PCs along to attack some powerful force of good, an assassination mission or something. And to do it really publically, so that all sorts of people know it was them who did it. In the event that they don't die, this is the yuguloth's backup plan for making sure that they can't spill all his secrets to a waiting order of paladins or something once their contract is up.

For extra rat-bastardliness, have the good guys corner the PCs and be completely unwilling to accept surrender, bargaining, pleas for mercy etc. Then have the yuguloth use a sending or something to offer to rescue the PCs - but since it would be at the cost of some risk to him, they would have to consent to serve him for another month if they wish to be rescued...

"Unpaid mercenaries are the best kind!" *claps hands together*

"Oh, I meant for the 'loths, not for the mortals. No they're screwed in the end but they'll feel valued and needed up till they get stabbed in the back, thats how these things work you see."

*sneers showing fangs*


Things to encounter while on Carceri:

Your PCs will have the stink of Yugoloths on them, and depending on what layers of the plane they traverse, they're going to be drawing Gehreleths (Demodands for 1e folks, or 3e newbs) like flies to a corpse. Gehreleths have a racial, deity directed hatred of Yugoloths. That your players are working for a group of 'loths will not endere them to the 'leths. Have fun.

Have fun detailing Carceri, be it the mountains and swamps of the first layer or the scarlet jungles of the next layer, and further in if they happen to layer skip as a shortcut to the Sinmaker. Imagine 9foot tall fields of razorsharp sawgrass swaying slightly without a wind and the rustling of 'somethings' underneath it waiting to devour anything flying overhead or foolish enough to actually enter the grasslands. Think packs of howlers, fiendish wildlife, etc. Bebelith's are always fun to toss in if the PCs have to get higher in the terrain and do so up a cliff face or through caves in the cliff face.

And remember the Styx tributaries that cross the 1st layer of the plane, working for the 'loths they'll probably have passage assured by way of the Marraenaloths who will suddenly be alot more cooperative and less likely to turn stag on the PCs.

Wandering Tanar'ri and/or Baatezu crisscrossing the first layer of the Plane.

Thralls and followers of the Titans of Mount Othrys. Getting involved in the interests of Cronus and/or Hyperion is never a good thing, despite the imprisonment of the entire group of Titans by the Greek Pantheon.



Rewards:

The PCs have, by this point, either outlived their usefulness or now know too much to live. The Yugoloths are going to backstab them, by a second party if at all possible to remove their own association with the betrayel. Hired mortals and blackmailed fiends make good assassins by proxy.

Nothing like having the PCs simply wake up as part of a slave train in Gehenna or a recruit in an army on Acheron. A nice stiff drink of Styx water provided by their now unremembered Yugoloth partners fixes all those 'you know too much about what we did' problems. *GRIN*

Or if the PCs are still useful, make the Yugoloths have something on them to ensure their future use. Binding contracts they're forced into signing are good, ie force a random future stipulation at the 'loths choosing that they can be called upon, and/or revealing information about what they did for the 'loths at the 'loths behest is grounds for release of information to Lolth by the 'loths saying that they've found the group responsible for the attacks on her servants. The fiendish finger gets pointed at the PCs of course in that case.

In the case of the PCs getting into serious trouble at the hands of this particular mercenary, there's always the route of having another Yugoloth, unassociated with the current group show up and offer to make their problems vanish in return for either nothing, or for a few favors in the future. One of those "Just sign here and your problems will be taken care of." Make them of course be a seemingly helpful and genuinely concerned and contrite Arcanaloth. Make it seem like a good idea, and make it seem like it works with little consequences to the negative at first. That's the best kind of deals forced by necessity.

In an effort to curry favor with Orcus, the PCs are conscripted to disrupt a powerful cermony that will cause a massive army of undead in the service to Kiaralesee. The PCs are ordered to, by any means necessary, stop the cermony and prevent the Revenancer from gaining any more followers. In exchange, Orcus gives the PC access to the Crown of Demonic Might, a small artifact that's been lying around Orcus' citadel. Unknown to any, Orcus's crown is actually a sentient artifact that will, after absorbing the life force of 200 HD worth of creatures, open a dimensional rift and cause a massive force of undead to invade and enslave in the name of Orcus.

demiurge1138 said:

As for the "reward for faithful service", I'd say that a really nasty thing to do to the party is to have them tasked to break into and steal documents from an infernal library

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I really like this idea. Since the party (& yugoloths) will have just slain some powerful minions of Dispater, I think they'll be sent to return an overdue book to the Iron Library of Dis.

Shemeska said:

Have fun detailing Carceri, be it the mountains and swamps of the first layer or the scarlet jungles of the next layer, and further in if they happen to layer skip as a shortcut to the Sinmaker. Imagine 9foot tall fields of razorsharp sawgrass swaying slightly without a wind and the rustling of 'somethings' underneath it waiting to devour anything flying overhead or foolish enough to actually enter the grasslands.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I want more flavorful encounters than "uh-oh, it's another devil/demon!", to match the coolness that is evident in such descriptions of the plane itself.

Shemeska said:

Thralls and followers of the Titans of Mount Othrys. Getting involved in the interests of Cronus and/or Hyperion is never a good thing, despite the imprisonment of the entire group of Titans by the Greek Pantheon.

Click to expand...

Now this sounds interesting. Where can I find out more about these exiled Titans? Or are they literally the ones from Greek mythology (which isn't exactly consistant with my world's cosmology)?

Nightfall said:

a massive army of undead in the service to Kiaralesee

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I didn't like that meatgrinder.

-- N

Nifft said:

Now this sounds interesting. Where can I find out more about these exiled Titans? Or are they literally the ones from Greek mythology (which isn't exactly consistant with my world's cosmology)?
-- N

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Technically yes they are the same ones. Carceri was afterall originally called Tartarus in Gygax's original planes. And Tartarus was where Zeus originally banished the Titans of Greek myth.

They don't have to neccessarily be the same though if you don't want them to be in your game though. All that needs to be said is that they rage in impotence on the 1st layer of Carceri, unable to leave the plane and take revenge and their proper place of power once more. They seek any method to aid their escape and will pay heftily for anythign that might aid them, but are also quick to anger at anyone who visits them for that purpose. Those who do are free to come and go while the monstrously more wise and powerful titans are unable to do so equally.

Carceri is a prison plane not so much as with bars and walls and confinement, its a chaotic plane, but confinement by our own devices, our own faults and our own weaknesses. Ultimately we trap ourself by our own devices. Play with that in whatever the Yugoloths eventually do to backstab the PCs in your game. *grin*

Anyone got advice on running Sigil? (Wizardru's story hour is my only inspiration so far...)

Thanks, -- N

Nifft said:

Anyone got advice on running Sigil? (Wizardru's story hour is my only inspiration so far...)

Thanks, -- N

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Well my storyhour takes place in Sigil, at least the latest updates have and the PCs will be based out of the City of Doors as the story progresses.

And then there's the 3e guide to Sigil up on Planewalker.

If you have the time, locate and play Planescape: Torment. It is not entirely canonical, but it captures the feeling of Sigil almost perfectly...