Planar Invasion!!!

[Khorod]

THEY HAVE COME!!!

Whether you have adventured for minutes or decades, you are now faced with the otherworldly denizens and machinations of other planes intruding upon the mortal soil of your homeland.

Where will you go? What can you do?

From the dark corners of the world, demons are invading in force. You and your closest friends are partially responsible for the fate of the world!


1) What do you need to protect yourself from waves of demons?
2) What do you need to properly hurt the enemy?
3) Can you, all by yourself, beat back the whole attack?
4) Are their special techniques for fighting demons?
5) Will your nation be able to help you?
6) Is their some place in your homeland that must be protected at all costs?
7) Why doesn’t someone else take care of this? Aren’t the Knights of the Holy $random_noun$ supposed to defend the world from this sort of thing?
8) Would a counter-invasion into Hell help? Would it be worth it?
&nbsp&nbspa. How do you get there?
&nbsp&nbspb. How do you survive the environment while there?
&nbsp&nbspc. How do you get home again?
9) Are you the only ones that can organize all the peoples and races into mutual defense or counter-offensive?
10) What do you get if you win? Will the king or gods reward you?
11) What can you confiscate from the enemy? The spellbooks and weapons of darkness might include some gray items worth keeping.
12) Win or lose, what responsibilities or punishments can you expect? A century of torment from the victors? A two-thousand year charge to head off any more invasions?
13) After years of fighting, what can you expect to become of the land? What crazy adaptations will the people or warriors have made to deal with the new situation? Will the pacifists go homicidal?
14) Will you and other ‘heroes’ you know specialize in hurting demons, surviving to fight another day, or something else?
15) Might you be able to trigger in-fighting among the enemy?
16) What crazy ways will the horde of evil apply what they find in the mortal world? (Cross-breeding projects, etc.)


So, I’d like everyone and their brother to try to answer at least one of these questions. Be it a paragraph on military strategy, a sentence long idea about keeping lots of ice nearby, or a new prestige class grown from dealing with this threat. Any or all would be welcome.

If you think of a different scenario, involving:

A) Mindflayer invasions,
B) Celestials trying to free unfairly kept souls from hell, but have to escort them through other planes.
C) The arrival of a busload of Robin Williams-like Djinn
D) Whatever

feel free to explore those ideas too.

 

[Sidran]

A) First off your list above reminds me of DAEMONFORGE, at least a list of what I should be anyway.


7) Why doesn’t someone else take care of this? Aren’t the Knights of the Holy $random_noun$ supposed to defend the world from this sort of thing?

The Knights of the Holy Orc did try, but failed when they marched through the foul fissure into the land of Hell. Now they have returned as the Knights of Death (Yeah Death Knights) to wreak havoc on New Seattle. Though the Native American Shamen have found some ancient fetishes against these sort of beasts.

Using Shadowrunners to combat the fiendish spawns from the other realms the Shamen have had a good success. That is until one poor native stumbles upon the Daemon bottle and releases a havoc of twisted fury on the southern end of the City, Killing both fiend, and mortal as he goes.

As a Street Samurai I feel it is my duty, and upon my honour to stop the twisted shaman, with my Ares Dragon ( Tm) and my shock force of highly trained runners and the enlisted help of a dragon he head into the great dark of Seattle.

" Chummer's Listen up" I yelled trying to speek over the twin engines of the helicopter " We have armegeddon happening in our turf"
" Do we go quitely into the depths of hell like those stupid fanatical Knights to return as the soldiers of Satan, or do we fight it noisy with our panthers and our Predators"

" WE FIGHT!!!"

" Zipp hit the music" The lofty strands of an old song " Hells bells" begins to play throughout the interior of helicopter.

" Groucho, Doc head for the Wasps, LETS LOCK and LOAD chummers"

" Sir I have the access to South Cities camera's if you would like to play peeping tom" Zipp called up to me from his deck.

"Hell yah, lets see these demons panties" In front of us the small little flat screen lit up with an image of hordes of burning eyed orcs, and trolls slaughtering the street folk as they marched towards downtown.

" Thats the Nippon turner building, boss"
" Look at all those poor Corpies get'n it up the arse, sir" Rift looked about to cry " Sir we gotta do sumeth'n"
===========================================


[end silliness]

Ok yes that was shadowrun inspired but hey you didn't say it had to be a fanstasy situation.

 

[ax0n]

First if all, why does it have to be demons invading? Wouldn't it be more interesting if Celestials decided that mortals weren't good enough to run things themselves and decided to invade and take over? Just a thought

1) What do you need to protect yourself from waves of demons?

Lots and lots of clerics with access to the Good domain, for starters. Perhaps it would also be time to developer the nuclear weapon equivalent of holy smie - mass holy smite perhaps.

8) Would a counter-invasion into Hell help? Would it be worth it?

I love the idea of a hell counter invasion. To do this you'd probably have to create an alliance with the Celestials, which, given their holier-than-thou attitude, might be more trouble. Alternatively, allying with a rival group of demons or devils.

 

[Telgian]

First if all, why does it have to be demons invading? Wouldn't it be more interesting if Celestials decided that mortals weren't good enough to run things themselves and decided to invade and take over? Just a thought

LOL.
That would definitely put a party/entire world into a real quandry!
Especially those with a sizable contingent of good characters.
It would also cause some anguish about whether they *should* cut a deal with the infernal realms.
Perhaps cutting a deal with neutral powers?

Dealing with a celestial invasion (of the most rigid lawful type)

Item that obsucure alignment.
Item that obscures presence.
Neutral weapons, if evil ones are not palatable.
Neutral 'holy' water, for those pesky celestials and demons.

If the infernal powers are called in, how do you get them to leave when the fighting is over (assuming sucess)
How do you pay them?

 

[Moonsword]

Draconic Countermeasures

My lengthy answer to question (3):

3) Can you [the mortals], all by yourself, beat back the whole attack?

No, I doubt that mortals could fight off an entire demonic (or celestiel) invasion single-handedly. They're simply not powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with any high-level outsiders, and there aren't enough high priests & archmagi around to deal with the threat. For example, in an independent campaign setting, to deal with a moderate-sized group of powerful undead and demons, the sacrifice of the following ocurred: 1 advanced great silver wyrm (2 categories), 1 ancient bronze dragon, 2 young adult bronze dragons, 3 archmagi, and about 6 mid-level priests, as well as several THOUSAND soldiers, from two different armies, one of which included the idiots responsible for summoning these forces. Granted, this was a backstory battle, and involved a couple of baalors and several winterwights, as well as a 23rd-level lich, who died slaying the last of the baalors. It should still give an idea as to how large a problem these creatures are to defeat, however. In large groups, demonic armies can easily overwhelm mortal powers. The solution: the dragons! Draconic mages are going to be much more powerful, having centuries to develop their powers, and being much harder to kill than an equivalent human or elven mage at the same CR. And none of the dragons are likely to enjoy outsiders of the opposite side running the world, and force and prismatic dragons won't like either group. The dragons also have the intelligence and perception to come up with counter-strategies to the invasion and figure out how to use mortal armies to their best effect. The real draconic masters in this regard are the bronzes, who are fascinated with war. Greens might fill this niche in countering celestials. Also, the dragons that are aligned with the winning side are probably going to stay neutral, and LE dragons may not like demons, and CE's against devils. Thus, if convinced, the dragons are able to put more force on a single point than the mortals can imagine, and can do so quite quickly. Sorry for the length of the post, but I hope it sparks some ideas.

Note: The dragons are going to have to be dealt with, especially chromatics and some neutrals, who likely aren't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.

 

[Khorod]

I'll start by answering my own post. As per a discussion with a friend, supreme number ONE priority is to close the gates, portals, or whatever, that allows more things to invade, and allows the demons to make temporary but thorough retreats to its own home.

And perhaps if the PC's can do that, the united efforts of everyone else on the planet can finish the rest...

First if all, why does it have to be demons invading? Wouldn't it be more interesting if Celestials decided that mortals weren't good enough to run things themselves and decided to invade and take over? Just a thought

Well, someone didn't finish my post. How about this for a differece- mindflayer invasion. Now you need 'Astral Water' .

How about those celestials, as embodiments of good, redefine the rules for mortals. Now almost all good mortals are neutral, and all neutrals are evil, and a crusade from heaven is sent to fix the sudden wave of evil which encompasses the world!

My lengthy answer to question (3):
3) Can you [the mortals], all by yourself, beat back the whole attack?

Great that a lurker was drawn up out of the woodwork!

Okay, so maybe that question should be refined to 'so, what conditions, tactics, tools, or allies can supplement a party's power so trying to beat back the horde is worth it?'

In other words, does the party need a hundred animated Vorpal Holy Swords, or what? Is there a conceivable way the PC's could win without an army of dragon-archmages? (Not that such isn't a good idea, if you can swing it).

 

[Moonsword]

Well, I wasn't so much thinking of an army of draconic archmages as perhaps a dozen great wyrms banding together with several of the epic dragons and starting research with mortal casters on a powerful epic spell or set thereof to help hedge out the demons, bind up the planar tear they're leaking through, etc. Of course, the dragons are going to need proteciton while they cast these spells, and also they would need to be cast at specific places. For example, sealing up the demon portal is going to require a huge raid involving at least a couple dozen dragons, windriders and skyknights, and possibly an attack by conventional forces with powerful magic items. And not all of those dragons are epic casters, either. At least 2/3 should only be defenders and blockers, possibly including a force or prismatic dragon, either of which is more than capable of causing major havoc. Also, with the proper spells, the casting dragons and mages could easily be kept airborne, if possible by the constraints of the spell. While probably a pain in the neck for the DM, this sort of event would be world-changing, and deal a major defeat to the demons.

As for a mindflayer invasion, a good response involving dragons is quite simple: gem dragons! Dragons don't like the idea of anyone being stronger than they are, with the possible exception of deities. (Note I said possible. Not all dragons are even comfortable with that!) Crystal and emerald dragons are both liekly to lend a wing in aid, an some of the others can probably be convinced. And none of the metallics are likely to be happy with the situation, either. A dragon with levels of psion is going to be a major pain in the arse to illithid, no matter what color it is. Also, standard considerations of draconic power apply, as well. Magical abilities work just as well against illithids as any other mere mortal.

As for how to possibly defeat the invasion without aid from an army of dragons, some elven mage somewhere on another plane is likely to have access to a spell to seal the portal and easily banish high-level demons. The drow also might be able to help, although their-likelihood of doing so is so small as to be unmeasurable. Subterfuge in getting the aid of a high priestess will likely be a plus, as they can likely banish demons through access to an exclusive spell. An idea for the elven mage: stick 'em on a plane with the No Time descriptor. Thay way, the elf could easily be in the range of several millennia, and with the possibility of having devoted centuries to the research of spells, could easily have access to some very powerful spells, many of them dealing with extraplanar creatures. Of course, he may well believe that the world hasn't changed since he left, or may refuse to converse in any modern language, preferring Draconic and High Elven, as well as requiring a lengthy petition process. DMs are encouraged to be fiendish here. Also, the plane could have some very strange rules regarding temporal stasis, i.e. time travel is possible. The Netbook of Time could be very useful here.

 

[ax0n]

There must be a way to repel a outer-planar invasion without resorting to allying with otehr extremely powerful beings, such as celestials, demons, devils or dragons? Surely, heroic mortals must be able to fight the odds by themselves. Perhaps the discovery of some sort of artifact might be in order? And aren't the forces of darkness always being held back by groups of heroes who manage to cast some spell?

 

[Khorod]

...and the Holy One goes up into the mountains, and finds there God. Chiseled at the instructions of the divine were then 7 tablets, each a ritual of sacred authority.

...and to each the Holy One gave a single tablet of divine guidance, one to the mages, one to the knightly orders, one to the temples of the lord, one to ....

...and the mages chanted long, and the white force rippled outward, shaking the ground in its wake. All that was dark was pushed from the land, and the glorious borders of the nation of Laratos were surrounded by walls of light. Thus the Bastion of the Light was created.

But it remained 1000 years for the sallies of its knights to push the demons into the dark corners of the world.
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The aid of Dragons, Gods, and Major artifacts will always tip the balance. Hell, you can figure that in the face of a demon invasion even many of the darker gods will join the Light Side of the Force. New, more flavorful ways of finding and using these greater resources are always good, they help avoid the cliches. But how about someone give thought to what the party of 15th level heroes do without those. (They can be that high so their hit points and magic weapons are up to fighting demons).

Would it be better for them to sneak around, killing one demon at a time? The other knights going after other, maybe lesser demons. The PC's special because they keep bumping into the big boys...

Or maybe they should leave the Magic Sword of the Greater Neutral Powers in a narrow canyon, and when the big demon shows up to claim it the PC's throw a delightful ambush and banish the fellow.

What happens if you kill the boss demons? Does that help or hurt sanity in the mortal world?

 

[Khorod]

let's refine this discussion a bit.

How would PC's act, and what could they do, the day of an invasion, a month later, a year later, and a decade later?