What happens if you ignore plague spirits?

[aboyd]

Hey gang. My players have blown off a module (DCC #23, Sunken Ziggurat) 3 times, and now I need to figure out a plausible result. We're mostly just making stuff up, so feel free to throw out ideas. I'll give you 2 paragraphs of background info to go on.

Background
The module was placed in the Lone Heath marshlands -- there are no evil lizardfolk out there; mostly just humans reside there, if anyone. The players were scouting for another module on their first interaction with the Sunken Ziggurat (like a pyramid). They mostly just saw "unnatural storm clouds" a few miles off, but decided to stick to their main objective. They didn't come back for weeks, and my thought was that in weeks the ziggurat would have laid waste to the lands, so I reset the module's timer. The second time out, they ignored it again. I wasn't sure what to do. This third time, during today's game, it was now weeks later in the game world again, and they blew it off again. I cannot keep resetting the module's timing. I've decided that bad bad things have now definitely, definitively happened -- not to the players, but to the rest of the area, and the module is now closed to the players (other heroes would have solved it, or perhaps the surrounding lands are now utterly destroyed).

Here is what happens. The module says that there are "Spirits of Uru-Nuk" being created by a defiled altar, deep in the ziggurat. These are created 1 per round. Having blown off the module for probably 2 months in game time (not counting the first sighting, which I reset), that means approximately 864,000 spirits have flown out into the world. The Spirit of Madness is a CR 4, casting hypnotic patterns, confusion spells, and its touch can reduce wisdom to 0 (catatonic, nightmares). The Plague Spirit is a CR 5 and casts contagion. The Storm Spirit is CR 6, hurls 1 lightning bolt per day, and slams for shock damage. They all have DR 5/magic, and elemental traits.

My thoughts
I might ignore the module's "one monster created per round" text and assume that the number was not constant (rather, the apex of an ongoing process, which the PCs just happened to stumble into at a bad moment). But even if I were to say that "only" 1000 of these spirits were created, it seems like they would utterly destroy or corrupt small communities. I'm OK with that. Name towns if you like, and what you think would happen. I'm even OK hearing what 864,000 of these critters might do, and who might be called to stop it (if possible). I'm willing to consider that the entire game shifts to post-apocalyptic, if need be. Or perhaps the Fiend Sage of Rel Astra will pull another "Crook of Rao" stunt and banish all the spirits with some artifact? What ideas do you think are plausible? What would you project would be the outcome of thousands of CR 4/5/6 spirits descending upon the land?

 

[Dragonwriter]

The Spirit of Madness is a CR 4, casting hypnotic patterns, confusion spells, and its touch can reduce wisdom to 0 (catatonic, nightmares). The Plague Spirit is a CR 5 and casts contagion. The Storm Spirit is CR 6, hurls 1 lightning bolt per day, and slams for shock damage. They all have DR 5/magic, and elemental traits.

My thoughts
I might ignore the module's "one monster created per round" text and assume that the number was not constant (rather, the apex of an ongoing process, which the PCs just happened to stumble into at a bad moment). But even if I were to say that "only" 1000 of these spirits were created, it seems like they would utterly destroy or corrupt small communities. I'm OK with that. Name towns if you like, and what you think would happen. I'm even OK hearing what 864,000 of these critters might do, and who might be called to stop it (if possible). I'm willing to consider that the entire game shifts to post-apocalyptic, if need be. Or perhaps the Fiend Sage of Rel Astra will pull another "Crook of Rao" stunt and banish all the spirits with some artifact? What ideas do you think are plausible? What would you project would be the outcome of thousands of CR 4/5/6 spirits descending upon the land?

In a word, bad. Even just 1,000 of those spirits would probably be able to cause widespread destruction. I think ignoring the 1 per round would probably be prudent, as trying to manage 864,000 or so would be a nightmare for all involved.

I take it these spirits are malign and want to cause trouble? With that many Storm Spirits, it's quite possible that a gigantic storm forms (either because of their concentrated presence, or they merge) and follows them. The Plague and Madness Spirits would cause some serious havoc and chaos. The most near-lying villages should be pretty nasty, with people going insane, comatose, infected with nasty diseases, etc. If you think there's been enough time, maybe those things have spread further out.

Of course, I'm kinda assuming these Spirits stick together. If they just rush off from the ziggurat in random fashion, then there will still be destruction, but not so focused. People in the cities should start turning up gibbering, or finding comatose bodies. Others should come down with exotic diseases. And a few folks should get hit with "stray" lightning bolts.

So, what level is the party? And are the spirits incorporeal, or like your normal elementals?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I see an opportunity for a fairly spectacular scene. A ubiquitous question in D&D is "why isn't (powerful NPC X) doing this?". I would think an influx of evil spirits would attract the powerful creatures of the campaign world and a fairly spectacular battle/war could ensue.

Before the dragons/deities/etc. arrive, I would think that CR 4-6 creatures with DR would lay waste to any human town, and even 1,000 of them could severely damage or destroy even a mid-size city. This kind of carnage lays the ground for interesting undead-related plots; perhaps an entire town is raised as an undead mob or shrieking terror (MMIII I think). The massive influx of souls to the outer planes could impact divine politics. Of course, all of this depends on how the campaign world is structured and on how far you're willing to go (sounds like far). What happens when the PCs don't avert the big evil thing is an interesting start for essentially a new campaign.

 

[Physiker]

I guess the spirits are considered mindless, so I don't think they have a hive mind or something like that.
So I guess they would not stay together or act together.
Now you have spirits leaving the ziggurat every day, in every direction causing trouble in the villages and cities on their way. So given enough time some will reach a temple where the cleric and/or paladins will notice what causes all the trouble. So I guess they would start a holy mission to the ziggurat, and at least stop some of them.

I don't know how challenging the ziggurat might be but I would send paladins and cleric which can't win, but instead camp around the ziggurat and slaughter anything what comes out of it.

The also forbidd anybody to enter since it's an evil place, so your player characters will have to talk there way in if they finally want to make the quest. I personally would charge them the whole treasure as tribute to the church or something like that.

Edit:
I just thought about Aliens vs Predators, so if your game features a cult or something like that, let them use the ziggurat as training or testing palce.
The young members of the cult have to survive one night within the ziggurat to become a full member or something like that.
This, one the one hand side, would make the encouter more difficult, since the player character would also have to face that cult to get into the ziggurat, on the other hand side, they wouldn't get more treasure since the cult (or some of it's members) could have raided the ziggurat already.

Of course such a secret cult would not let the ghosts run around freely, on the one hand it puts themselves at risk on the other hand side they wouldn't be secret long if ghostes storm out of that place.

 

[aboyd]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll try to answer the questions.

I take it these spirits are malign and want to cause trouble?

Yep. They are the heralds of an evil creature awakening deep in the ziggurat. Their goal is to be harbingers of doom, although in this case they may be as bad as the doom itself.

Of course, I'm kinda assuming these Spirits stick together. If they just rush off from the ziggurat in random fashion, then there will still be destruction, but not so focused.

They do in fact go off in random fashion, at least according to the module. It paints them as taking to the skies, one by one. However, the monster description in the Dungeon Denizens monster collection has them with scores in every ability (for example, instead of "Int -" they have "Int 9" or thereabouts). They all have wisdom of 13. So they are sentient and could certainly make decisions to "gang up" on something. In addition, the monster stat block lists their "Organization" as "Solitary, flurry (2-5), storm (8-80)." I imagine 80 of these Storm Spirits flying toward a settlement of 500 villagers in a swamp would set the villagers into sheer panic, especially as the lightning bolts began hitting anyone in the streets.

So, what level is the party? And are the spirits incorporeal, or like your normal elementals?

The characters are level 7 & 8, now. The spirits seem to be like air elementals, mostly. They are "smoky vapor."

I would think that CR 4-6 creatures with DR would lay waste to any human town, and even 1,000 of them could severely damage or destroy even a mid-size city.

I've started picturing it. I'm thinking that my players might walk up to Rel Astra to sell off some loot, and see massive storm clouds hanging over the city. As they approach, they witness high level heroes flying over the city, hurling spells at the vortex, dueling with the air itself.

I guess the spirits are considered mindless, so I don't think they have a hive mind or something like that.
So I guess they would not stay together or act together.

I think I have leeway. I think it might be fun to have some of the madness & plague spirits secretly infest a town to cause mysterious illnesses, while the plague spirits bunch together to rain down devastation from the heavens.

One thing I didn't mention is that I may take Zargon (if anyone remembers him) and make him the "old god" that is being reborn at the lowest level of the ziggurat. Add in the cultists that some of you have mentioned, and I think I'm getting close to figuring out what this insanity will look like.

Thanks for the help thus far. I'd certainly welcome more.

 

[CAFargo]

Well, one thing that could be happening, seeing as how the players have yet to hear anything of this massive army of these things just floating about, have reports come to them of a massive orb of spirits surrounding an ancient ziggaret somewhere in this swamp. As the characters approach, they clearly see it, and it is beginning to fall apart. A practical solution that also brings back that ticking bomb as, if the characters ignore it (again), the world ends in blasts of electricity, plagues, and comatose-inducing madness.

 

[Herobizkit]

CAFargo has the right of it. When was the last time you ACTUALLY ruined a campaign world via demonic apocalypse, and when was the last time your PC's actually PLAYED through one?

If the Realms can survive a few apocalypses, your world can too. But it doesn't have to.

Heck, this could herald the birth/changeover of/into 4e, if you were so inclined.

 

[Shin Okada]

Those spirits will cause havoc for sure.

I guess, if PCs ignore those spirits, all the nearby communities will be ruined. Even if they somehow continue avoid the attacks of spirits, PCs will eventually die for hunger and such, as there will be no edible life forms nearby. Or at least, they will lose all the people they love.

If your campaign is held in typical D&D world with deities, some of them will predict that kind of world-wide havoc, though. Refer to Deities and Demigods and Divine-related files of SRD. Racial greater gods such as Corellon, Moradin & even Gruumsh are keen to notice the big events which threatens their children. Also, some arcane diviners will predict the world-wide havoc, too.

Then, big war may happen. It can be a havoc not only to good races and their gods but also to rival evil gods. Especially, most LE beings do not like to see the end of the material plane. They want to rule there, not to destroy. It can be a good opportunity to play a mixed-alignment campaign.

 

[aboyd]

So I wanted to follow up and close out this thread with a summary of how everything played out. I ended up using info from many threads here at En World. It all came together.

The short & sweet of it is that the group's cleric received omens to flee the area, as some of you suggested. And they did flee, at first. However, once out of the storm, they met up with an oracle and paid for a Divination spell ("where should we go?"), which gave them this warning: "The wounded bird knows no direction but that of escape."

Apparently the cleric didn't understand it at first. So they re-armed themselves with some extra magic items, and then rode right back in. They made it to the ziggurat (pyramid), which shocked me. The game day ended with them tumbling down some slippery stairs into the ziggurat. A few days later, this was posted on my campaign forum:

"However, if these dreams are to be believed, you are wounded birds who must flee. You cannot stay here. I can only help you to take flight."

Hmm...this just sunk in. I think that we were supposed to have fled. Interesting. Perhaps that is why our DM expected a TPK with the storm spirits. He thought that we didn't have a chance against this.

And the rest of you appeared resigned to the "fact" that we would all die on this quest.

So, after they were back at the vortex, the cleric realized in hindsight that they were supposed to flee the vortex.

I couldn't think of any possible way for them to live through this. They already escaped one TPK. So I placed a high-level party in the ziggurat, just a short way past the entrance. If the PCs parlayed, surrendered, and allied with that high-level group, they might all might survive. This also would play well with their quest for redemption (the PCs had almost all turned chaotic evil over the course of the campaign, and now this high-level group would offer them a chance for ultimate good -- saving the world or a big chunk of it). Unfortunately, the PCs have some history with the leader, and they did not like the whole "surrender" thing. Fights break out. One player in particular kept saying, "I'm sure I can beat them!" This despite the fact that the high-level party had been the source of their previous near-TPK.

Two (smart) PCs teleport outta there at that point.

For the remaining characters, in the midst of this brawl, their little goblin recruit turned on them and began blowing up their hirelings. Chaos reigned -- I had the goblin appear to look like one of the other players (alter self) and it genuinely confused the players for a couple of rounds. So 2 dead hirelings before the players even decided that the goblin was responsible.

Once they began to lose and fled outside of the ziggurat, then the storm spirits closed in and the PCs had to contend with hundreds of lightning strikes (in addition to the high-level party, and a mutiny from within). Everyone died.

So... players who are used to level-adjusted games: 0. Sandbox: 1.

The two who fled will now serve as the core of a rebooted campaign. They've already begun recruiting new PCs. They don't have much time, however. There are storm clouds on the horizon.

Thanks everyone for the help! My Greyhawk world has been utterly ravaged by this unplanned apocalypse. Hopefully the new party will survive longer... perhaps by fleeing prophesied doom, and journeying to a safer place.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Sounds fun.