A cry for help...

[ghrezdd]

I need some help for my campaign and I am turning to you all for ideas that I can loot.

My party is all about 16-17th levels. They are just starting an Epic, plane spanning adventure. Basically the gist of the adventure is that there is one source of all Evil. It existed before the gods created the universe. All *evil* gods are merely shades of its dreams. The gods imprisoned it and magically kept it a sleep, as it was more powerful than they.

Now 3 deciples known only as the Destoryer, Defiler and the Deceiver (in my mind the 3 archetypes of evil) are trying to free this THing of Ultimate Evil. There is a physical conenction to this "prison" in the Material Plane. The 3 evil deciples have already formented a rebellian in the "good" kingdom whose aristocracy the players have joined.

What I am having trouble on is coming up with a prophecy that will get the party to go into other planes (the Astral plane imc is repersented as an infinite sea - known as the Sea of Dreams - with different planes being islands...) and retrieve *something* which does *something* to prevent the BBEG from being released.

Any ideas or help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Piratecat]

I'm all about prophecies.

Before I do, though, you may want to think about throwing in a curve ball; see Rounser's excellent advice in this thread.

Do you know yet where you want the prophecy to come from? Does it have to be from a particular time (right now, ten years ago, a thousand years ago)? And who is your God of Divinations, or something similar?

 

[der_kluge]

Hey ghrezdd, long time no post.

When I read the above, I thought, "hey cool, three interesting BBEGs". Nice idea. Really original.

Here's where I would go with it:

Stat out the Destroyer, Defiler, and Deceiver. Evocation wizard, blight Wizard (use Mystic Eye Games' Blight Magic sourcebook; alternatively a necromancer), and an Illusionist wizard. They don't have to be wizards, but could be demons, or devils, or something altogether. But that's how I see them.

The Deceiver would be the one instigating the rebellion in the good kingdom, to draw people's attentions away from the work the other two are doing.

Now, if I had imprisoned a great evil ("An UNSPEAKABLE evil!" as they say in Samurai Jack) I would make the gate to it nigh impossible to open. Better yet, make it so that only creatures of "good" alignment can even open it. So, the deceiver is going to need some pawns - enter the PCs.

Now, when the PCs deal with the rebellion, they might encounter cultists - cult members who follow these three D guys. That should lead them to the gate. Cunningly, the cultists could leave behind false clues that the only way to get to them is to open said gate. Feeling heroic, and powerful, PCs open said gate, only to let open a floodgate of demons and evil spirits into the land.

Enter the defiler. Now that the land has turned into a nightmare, the defiler begins sucking power from the land to make them, specifically the Destroyer, more powerful. Once the great sucking sound begins, enter said Sage, who reveals a cryptic prophecy to the PCs about how naive good shall set the world on a path to doom, and that the end will begin once the great evil is re-awakened.

Once this happens, the PCs figure out that they need to find the Defiler, since he is pumping power into the Destroyer. The Destroyer has to be as strong as possible to defeat the guardian - a being of pure good and law that guards the sleeping evil. But the deceiver still exists, and it's now his job to see to it that the defiler's location is hidden. The PCs may need to locate a powerful artifact, or consult a sage -either of which could be in the Astral plane, to figure out how to see through the Deceiver's magic.

Alternatively, the item or Sage could reveal the location of the Deceiver - then the PCs travel to his domicile and destroy him. With the Deceiver out the way, the path to the Defiler becomes clear, and then they can divine his location (since nothing is blocking the divination now), and they find the defiler and destroy him.

Finally, they will need to travel to the prison where the Destroyer is headed, to cut him off before he can attack the guardian. It could be that he kills the guardian, and becomes tremendously weaker in the process, enabling the PCs to stop him before he opens the gate.

Sounds like a wicked cool campaign!

Hey, drop me a line at work. Curtis.Bennett@mail.youknowtherest.

 

[ghrezdd]

my gods are very simple - for the humans (the dominate species of course) they worship the Seven, straight from A Song of Fire and ICe (the BEST fantasy series going right now). Druids are humans who whorship the "Old Gods" a nebulous pantheon that created this world and the elves and dwarves. The druidical worship by the humans is a vulgar, degnerate relgion of the elven religion, who first taught the humans about them millenia ago. (the Kingdom Humans and the Seven came from "across the sea" around 1000 years ago.) Basically the elves freed the ESSENCE OF ALL EVIL (ala Jordan) and as the elves are responsible for the corruptio of this land and the elves are children of the Old Gods, the Old Gods are powerless to defeat them - the elves accidetnly gave shape/form to the entity, so in order to truly destroy it, the Old Gos would have to destroy the elves. Anyway, so the majority of the Good elves and their gods are taking their collective balls and going to another plane. Some elves are stayiong as they feel responisble and 1 elven god is staying too. THe dwarves just stay in their underground kingdoms and interact with anyone willing to pay them.

On too prophecies. One from an insane human pope of the Seven from several hundred years ago is what i was thinking

Some good ideas there Die_Kluge. Some will definitely make their way into my campaign.

 

[der_kluge]

Glad you liked them. Still waiting on that e-mail, btw.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll spew out some prophecy tomorrow. I haven't read the books, but you can just rip my post apart for ideas.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If it helps, a few quick notes about the Gods of Westeros:

The seven gods of the Faith are the Mother, the Father, the Warrior, the Maid, the Stranger, the Smith, and the Crone.

Some septons claim that the Faith has but one God with seven aspects and that that is why septs are single buildings with seven walls.

The Father is always bearded, the Mother is depicted as smiling with love and protection, the Warrior and the Smith always have their swords and hammers, the Maid is always beautiful, and the Crone is always wizened. The Stranger is neither male nor female, always the outcast and the wandered from far places.

There's quite a bit more here; scroll down to section 2.4, The Faith.

-Hyp.

 

[Piratecat]

Thanks, hyp. I'm thinking crone or stranger for the source. Gotcha.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Thanks, hyp. I'm thinking crone or stranger for the source. Gotcha.

I think either one works.

The Maiden, Mother, and Crone have some obvious parallels to Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, etc, etc. The eldest of the triple-goddess tends to represent wisdom. The Crone is often represented holding a lantern, which also has some symbolism regarding the revealing of knowledge. Plus, the Crone is, according to legend, responsible for letting the first Raven into the world - ravens in Westeros are used for communication (much like homing pigeons), so again, there's a dissemination-of-knowledge theme.

On the other hand, the Stranger is... you know, mysterious

-Hyp.

 

[ghrezdd]

Thanks guys! Specially hyp for helping PC with the Seven.

I look forward to your prophacy PC.

If you have any specific questions, you can mail me at ghrezdd@yahoo.com.

Thanks again!