D&D 5E Need suggestions for epic tasks worthy of a demigod

OB1 · Dec 30, 2017

Hi all, hoping to get some suggestions from the community as I start gearing up to run Tier IV for my group in a couple months. Long story short, the PCs will be traveling to the Outer Planes to follow several plot threads set up in earlier tiers. One of the plot threads will require divine intervention to be accomplished and so I expect them to try and petition the gods at some point.

What they will find out is that there is quite a long line (several thousand years) for mortals to request something of the divine. If they were demigods, that would change things. Unfortunately for them, it won't be quite as easy as answering "yes" when they are asked if they are a demigod of some kind. Each PC will need to have credit for accomplishing a task that proves them worthy of the title.

I'm not looking for specifics on how to accomplish the task, rather just big, flavorful ideas that have the potential to be handled in many ways. Each should also be tied to a specific Outer Plane.

Hoping to get at least 20 potential quests to provide. The list so far...

1. Bring and end to Dionysus' 742 year long drunken celebration with the Bacchae in Arborea
2. Return Gan's glade in the Beastlands to it's natural state. Thanks, @Eltab
3. Steal Acereraks' family jewels from his prison in Carceri. Thanks, @ArchfiendBobbie
4. Collect all of the pine cones in the Vindmere Forest of Arborea. Thanks, @Ganymede81
5. Assist Mahlhevik in parting the Silver Sea so that Sytris and Japheth may visit him once more.
6. End the Wearbear curse sweeping through the Serpent Spine in Ysgard. Thanks, @Landon Guss
7. Help Lily and Adoma reach Nirvana. Thanks @Draegn & @Tormyr
8. Get Sys's boulder to balance atop the highest peak of Shurrock and Dothion. Thanks, [MENTION=94389]jrowland[/MENTION]

Thanks in advance for the help!

Eltab · Dec 30, 2017

- A Balor (or whatever the top-end demon who is not a Demon Lord is called) lives in the Material World. Banish him back to his layer of the Abyss, and shut down for permanent the portal he keeps returning through. This will require a fight against his cultists to destroy the Material World end of the portal, and a fight against him. (Bonus: destroy his end of the portal too.)

- Negotiate a truce between two gods / demigods / Solars who feud constantly. They both have to trust and respect you before you can really make any progress.

- Cleanse a large forest of "un-natural influences" at the behest of a Nature deity; it used to be sacred to Him. The PCs will think of removing Outsiders and Technology. He really means "make it like it was 10000 years ago" as far as plants growing and resident animals and ecosystems. (To avoid making this an impossible challenge, they have to figure out the hidden meaning and work on that, not just implement the superficial meaning. When they get it right, He will bless them and send help to take over the project.)

- A certain town has been "a den of scum and villainy" for generations. Clean it up and figure out who / what is the behind-the-scenes influence that prevented all prior efforts from succeeding. (Which may be an Evil Node rather than a resident BBEG.)

- A famous Classic Lawful Good Paladin (who is about L15) is so full of himself that he is no longer lawful or good. Deliver an epiphany to him, setting his feet back on the narrow path. Administer his atonement.

ArchfiendBobbie · Dec 30, 2017

Hmm... Tasks...

- An angel has fallen and become a demon. The PCs must redeem the angel.

- A succubus wants to be a paladin for a lawful good deity. The PCs must help her accomplish her goal.

- If Tomb of Annihilation exists in your campaign and has not been completed yet, then the players must have one of their party kick Acererak between the legs and survive.

- The PCs must travel to the center of a dragon graveyard to retrieve a magical gem. The gem is the phylactery of a dracolich. If the gem is destroyed, the PCs fail the quest.

- Use a Wish to cancel another Wish so it does not prevent a third Wish from happening.

- Kill Drizzt. This particular god is upset with how Drizzt upset the elf-drow balance and now there are increasing numbers of heroic drow all over the place.

OB1 · Dec 30, 2017

[MENTION=6803337]Eltab[/MENTION] - I love the rebuild the ecosystem from 10,000 years ago idea, trying to get it down into one simple line that has just a clue or two to get the party started. I'm thinking...

Return Gan's glade in the Beastlands to it's natural state.

Ganymede81 · Dec 30, 2017

The tasks don't have to be TOO epic. Remember, one of the "epic" Labors of Hercules was, quite literally, to clean up some poop.

Heck, one of the tasks could be to collect all of the pine cones in the Vindemere Forest of Arborea; an utterly mundane task that requires an epic approach to get it done in time.

ArchfiendBobbie · Dec 30, 2017

Ganymede81 said:
The tasks don't have to be TOO epic. Remember, one of the "epic" Labors of Hercules was, quite literally, to clean up some poop.

The manure had to be cleaned up in a single day, and this labor was considered worse than slaying an invincible lion on the possibility scale. And he did it by partially rerouting two rivers. Without any magical powers. And that's before you consider how much there was.

"Clean up some poop" and "clean up so much poop you need to alter the geography to accomplish it" are two entirely different levels of task.

Ganymede81 · Dec 30, 2017

ArchfiendBobbie said:
That is the exact opposite example of your point. The manure had to be cleaned up in a single day, and this labor was considered worse than slaying an invincible lion on the possibility scale. And he did it by partially rerouting two rivers.

That very much was high on the epic level.

Ok, I'll bite. Go ahead and try to convince me that cleaning some poop is epic.

ArchfiendBobbie · Dec 30, 2017

Ganymede81 said:
Ok, I'll bite. Go ahead and try to convince me that cleaning some poop is epic.

I had reworded it to be less jerkish after rereading. My apologies about that initial wording.

There's the sheer amount. According to myth, this was not the droppings of a few cows. This was the droppings of thousands of cows. And he had to clean it up, by himself, in one day. In order to do it, he had to reroute two rivers.

It's like... the difference between killing a few goblins in combat and killing the entire goblin species.

Landon Guss · Dec 30, 2017

-Bind the life force's of an air, earth, water, and fire elemental together to forge a magical weapon.
-Cure a Demigod of its lycanthrope curse. Fighting a demi-werebear sounds pretty bad ass to me.
-Defeat a merrow in a race across a small river, pond, lake, or ocean.
-Steal the gems from a Red, Blue, Green, and Gray Slaad.

Ganymede81 · Dec 30, 2017

ArchfiendBobbie said:
I had reworded it to be less jerkish after rereading. My apologies about that initial wording.

There's the sheer amount. According to myth, this was not the droppings of a few cows. This was the droppings of thousands of cows. And he had to clean it up, by himself, in one day. In order to do it, he had to reroute two rivers.

It's like... the difference between killing a few goblins in combat and killing the entire goblin species.

I appreciate it; it was pretty jarring.

But yeah, that's why I describe it in my pine cone example as "an utterly mundane task that requires an epic approach to get it done in time."