What design features should Iuz's place of power have?

What design features should Iuz's place of power have?

The system in use is 1.5 AD&D hybrid. I'm looking for ideas more than anything else. If you can share a good idea from another version of the game, I would appreciate that too.

Background, PC's confronted Iuz and forced him to flee. They will be entering his place of power hoping to fully defeat him. The PC's are powerful with excellent magic items. There are a total of PC's fifteen PC's the most powerful in the mid-20's and many in the low-20th level range.

I have five levels to fill out.

Thank you,

V

For those of us who are not Greyhawk grognards, can you give us a little detail about who Iuz is, and what his place of power is like?

Is he a wizard, cleric or combo? Undead lich or living being?

Is his place of power a dungeon or a tower? An unholy temple or a research facility? Is he likely to be using living troops or traps and undead?

For these purposes wiki on Iuz is close to what's occured in my Greyhawk campaign.

I always think of Mordor when thinking of Iuz and his lands...but my game world isn't middle earth.



Iuz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Iuz is the chaotic evil demigod of Deceit, Evil, Oppression, Pain, and Wickedness. Iuz is variously called "The Old One" and "Old Wicked," among other titles. Unlike most Greyhawk deities, Iuz makes his home on Oerth, where he rules a broad swath of the Flanaess known as the Empire of Iuz. His symbol is a grinning human skull, or a human skull with blood-red highlights.

Iuz is the cambion child of the demon prince Graz'zt and Iggwilv, the so-called "Witch Queen of Perrenland." He is an ally, and sometimes lover of, Zuggtmoy, Demon Queen of Fungi, who keeps his soul amulet safe in her layer of the Abyss. His half-sister Drelnza, a vampire daughter of Iggwilv, was slain by adventurers. IMC the 1/2 sister hasn't been slain.

Iuz is the maternal grandson (by adoption) of Baba Yaga, and through Graz'zt, the half-brother of Athux, Thraxxia, and Arzial. He is also related, through his father, to the demon lords Pale Night, Lupercio, Rhyxali, Vucarik of Chains, and Zivorgian.

Iuz is allied with Graz'zt and Pazuzu, who he must deal with to summon demonic minions in any great numbers. He deals carefully with Lolth, but has no formal alliance with her. Thus far, they seek to dominate very different territories.

Iuz has many enemies, notably Vecna, Saint Cuthbert, Zagyg, and the Horned Society. He hates Keoghtom, Kelanen, Heward, and Murlynd for aiding in his imprisonment, and hates Bigby, Neb Retnar, Quij, Robilar, Riggby, Tenser for trying to kill him.

IMC Iuz has the same enemies plus a few more such as Athena, Odin, Tyche, Thor etc, since I use the Greek & Norse in addition to the Grewhawk deities. Iuz also currently has poor relations with his demon father and magic user human mother. On the plus side, Loki & Ares have fair terms with Iuz.

That sounds like a whole lot of backstory missed leading up to the perfect end of a campaign, taking out a demigod!

Iuz isn't dumb. He should have developed backup plans for these circumstances. Contingency spell upon contingency spell. He should have allies upon allies, though at these levels at this point in the campaign I can imagine these PCs have already dispatched with all those allies . . .

I'd see this "final" place of power as nothing more than a trap PCs were lured into. He is the demigod of deceit (!).

The campaign has been active 24 of the last 31 years.

The current story started in 2004, it's very long with lots of detours and yes it's being skipped.

The PC's have dealt with some of Iuz allies, he still has resources. In short, the have one shot left at taking him down in his place of power. Otherwise, they will be hunted down and exterminated one by one with few exceptions. There are four PC's in this group of 15 characters that are archmagi, they can probably hide with mindblank and avoid being found out if this failes.

So one view is that the Place of Power might be little more than a Tomb of Horrors like setting with lots of nasty traps and surprises for the PC's.

Please keep the comments coming as I want to have some really cool surprises for my players.

Virel said:

What design features should Iuz's place of power have?

The system in use is 1.5 AD&D hybrid. I'm looking for ideas more than anything else. If you can share a good idea from another version of the game, I would appreciate that too.

Background, PC's confronted Iuz and forced him to flee. They will be entering his place of power hoping to fully defeat him. The PC's are powerful with excellent magic items. There are a total of PC's fifteen PC's the most powerful in the mid-20's and many in the low-20th level range.

I have five levels to fill out.

Thank you,

V

Click to expand...

Wow, considering the size and level of the party, I'd say they've seriously have Iuz outgunned; especially considering he's only a demigod (and thus "mortal").

For the most part, I'd expect this to be a clever trap of Iuz - something that would seem an obvious fit for him to retreat to but is more of a Tomb of Horrors-like trap designed to wear down the PCs and destroy/confiscate their items.

At some point near the end, I would think the entire thing needs to shift to the outer planes - back in 1E/2E, items lost one plus per plane they were removed from the Prime Material. If he houses the last level or two in an outer plane such as the Abyss, you're looking at least a drop of items of a +2 value from the separation (Astral Plane --> Outer Plane). Coupled in with the quirks of a plane of the abyss, it'd also likely mess with spells (such as what occurs in Queen of the Demonwebs).

This isn't so much "screwing the players" as it would be Iuz seeking every advantage to even the playing field or throw it in his favor; certainly something someone who has plans to take over Oerth would have no qualms stooping to.

Iuz in my campaign is upgraded to lesser deity status. He can be killed if his phylactery is in hand, which it isn't. I have a fairly complex formula for that should it arise. Iuz's power level is capable of changing the PC's in their last encounter 3 PC's were irrevocabily killed out of a group of 15. The players have called in the remaining PC's so now is their last best change to take Iuz down before he can take them out one by one. I have an excellent handle on what's required to challenge the players and the PC's combat wise.

The area I need help with is cool ideas for what Iuz's place of power might contain. I think gates to the Abyss for sure. I have the place of power being an old mine where an anti-magic ore was mined. This allows some anti-scry properties. The mine also has various wards to prevent dimensional travel ie it's anchored.

Let's frame the question this way, what really cool idea for locations and encounters in this sort of setting?

The encounter/location can be based on 3e or Pathfinder, not really an issue as I can reframe the concept to 1st/2nd ed AD&D.

Virel said:

What design features should Iuz's place of power have?

The system in use is 1.5 AD&D hybrid. I'm looking for ideas more than anything else. If you can share a good idea from another version of the game, I would appreciate that too.

Background, PC's confronted Iuz and forced him to flee. They will be entering his place of power hoping to fully defeat him. The PC's are powerful with excellent magic items. There are a total of PC's fifteen PC's the most powerful in the mid-20's and many in the low-20th level range.

I have five levels to fill out.

Thank you,

V

Click to expand...

Wow, does the party possess any relics or artifacts?

Well, from my knowledge of Greyhawk/Iuz, I'd suggest some of the following location ideas:

City of Skulls (I believe this is his capital in his own lands, but I can see an area/level built completely of humanoid/monsterous bones. Great place to hide undead among the refuse and you can deter clerics from attempting to turn undead if the bones were say, interconnected animated skeletons with a "void" or other hazardous area beyond the floor/wall/ceilings.

Menhir of Femurs: In Five Shall Be One, Iuz and Cuthbert have a battle amid a ring of standing stones (Menhir). This may be a sacred temple area with great bones reaching upwards to the cavernous sky instead of standing stones, guarded by a perverted version of St. Cuthbert. The stones may need to be manipulated or a ritual performed here to move on to the next portion of the complex.

Slaver's Hold: A true "dungeon" level where Iuz keeps those souls he tortures. Filled with traps where showing mercy only ends up in the offender becoming imprisoned. Also a great place to showcase those who went before and failed, if for nothing else but to dishearten the heroes.

Cave of the Lover: Dedicated to Zuggtmoy, this is a fungus maze filled with creatures overrun by spores and fungus. The air within is filled poisonous yellow mold spores and/or myconid hallucinogen spores.

Embassy of Loki: An area set aside for visits from Loki or his priests. Covered with an illusion of a beautiful garden filled with deadly viper-flowers and the "hanging tree", whose venomous branches are ready to strangle any fool close enough to it not loyal to Iuz or Loki.

The party has a Prison of Zagig, I would count that as a minor artifact.

Otherwise, their magic is the appropriate +3 ring, +4 cloak, +3 plate mail, +4 sword, +3 dagger, +3 mace, bag of holding, AC 2 brancers, wand of frost, cube of force, pearl(s) of power, ring of wizardry, robe of the archmagi, boots of striding & springing, ring of spell turning, scarab of protection - sort of stuff you'd expect for a high level group of AD&D pc's. I would say on average each PC has about ten items.

Stormonu, I like most of those ideas and will probably use them in some form.

FWIW Dorakaa, was pretty much destoryed when the PC's managed to hit it with an elven "high magic" spell called Wrath of the Gods. This was repeated in another area of the Land of Iuz, to soften the deity up by killing massive numbers of his worshippers. The PC's are a blood thirsty lot