An Epic Game in Progress (my players avoid) New Request: 03/31/04

[Lord Zardoz]

The Githyanki Incursion

I will first state that I know very little about your campaign other then what your above comments have stated. That being said, your aims are quite clear, and specific knowledge is probably not needed.

As you say, your players will probably want to go ahead and swat the Githyanki Incursion out of existence for the sake of kicking ass. You just want to make sure that you do not spend 2 hours rolling dice to kill an army whose fate was sealed the moment the players showed up. And getting the players intrested on a personal level in wiping out large masses of cannon fodder (albeit premium grade A fodder) is that you no longer have a particular NPC to act as a focal point for the players efforts.

Here then, is my suggestion: Let the Githyanki break the rules a bit.

What if the Githyanki have found a way to tap the resources of thier own dead to fuel their army? Lets say that the Queen has struck some deal with your campaigns death god. For each Githyanki that should be bound to damnation, the Queen will send 2 non gith souls in their place. This can be made possible by whatever means you find most expedient. An Epic spell, a powerful artifact, some arbitrary cosmic phenomenon, or some combination.

The players catch wind of this when some ally tells them that people slain by a Githyanki are not being raised. You can also have some Near epic Githyanki villians show up, get trounced, and show up again within hours ready to fight. Or perhaps they just wont die. They will bleed alot, and scream, but they just will not go on to their well deserved afterlife.

The happy result of this is that you can feel completely justified in sending high level opponents at your players who get trounced without it screwing up the demographics of your campaign. Your not creating 500 20th level opponnents for your players, your simply using the same 15 over and over again.

When the players realize that they are going to have to kill the queen, AND figure out how to restore the souls killed by the githyanki to their rightful place, they will have a cosmically important task before them. And you can let your players discover that the entity that helped the githyanki queen do this is your shadow lord, and that he increased his own power base in the bargain with the Gith queen, your players will have that much more reason to be unhappy.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Spatzimaus]

1. Primals
In thinking of Primals, I can think of eight original forces, more or less: fire, earth, air, water, light, darkness, space (vacuum), and consciousness (or spirit).

In the homebrew my friends and I play, there are 10 elements: six basic ones (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Life, Death), three advanced ones (Light (Energy), Force (Law), Nexus (Chaos)), and then the most powerful element, Time. Drop Time from the list and you'd have your nine. Each of the three advanced ones is inherently linked to two opposing basic ones, so if you wanted three of the Primals to be stronger than the others it'd be easy.

 

[WizarDru]

Hrm for #5 and St. Kargoth, I have a False Saint PrC in the works that could fit for St. Kargoth, if he's a living person in the campaign. It's more bard based, making a deal with a powerful evil outsider (Orcus in this case) and grants abilities like the ability to use the Planar Ally (fiends only)/Create Undead line of spells, but when they're used, the fiends are automatically veiled to appear as angels, and the undead are veiled to look like what they were previously in life (and gain a profane bonus to Bluff/Disguise checks to mantain this lie). They also gain an Aura of Good, the ability to subtly charm opponents who they heal and similarly themed powers. Interested, by any chance?

St. Kargoth is actually stated out in an issue of the Living Greyhawk Journal that was in Dragon about a year ago, now. He is the first of the Death Knights, and a personal avatar of Orcus himself. He's nasty as all heck, and one fella I don't need to improve upon...especially if I include his nasty fellow Death Knights.

And I will.

Oh, and Zardoz: consider your idea officially swiped. The queen is statted out in the issue of Dungeon that was part of the Incursion event, and that's exactly how she gets around the 'eats them when they reach 16th level' restriction. She brings them back as undead servitors with oodles of power and a subservient mindset. Giving her an excuse for how and why she does it is a great idea. Your idea meets several needs. It gives me a good reason for the invasion beyond 'we want the Prime back, it belongs to us', and sets up a great way to both challenge the players and give them a more urgent reason to rescue the hostages.

But this opens a new problem: why wouldn't the queen consume the prisoners newly released from the Shadowtaker's Bestiary? I definitely do NOT want to link the Shadow King to the the Githyanki. I actually plan to make them linked through the machinations of Fraz, instead.

 

[Seule]

But this opens a new problem: why wouldn't the queen consume the prisoners newly released from the Shadowtaker's Bestiary? I definitely do NOT want to link the Shadow King to the the Githyanki. I actually plan to make them linked through the machinations of Fraz, instead.

Perhaps she is eating them, it's just a slow process. If 'eating' someone properly takes days or weeks, or can only be done at a specific time, then she's basically storing them in her larder until she needs them. Or she's slowly draining energy off them over time, and the longer before they are rescued, the worse off they'll be.

--Seule

 

[Spatzimaus]

But this opens a new problem: why wouldn't the queen consume the prisoners newly released from the Shadowtaker's Bestiary?

Well, there's always the "bait" option. That is, the hostages are kept uneaten because that puts a time crunch on the Meepites; they'll be motivated to take on the Queen quickly. If she were to consume them right away, the PCs would no longer have any immediacy in confronting her. This'd allow them to take their time, whittle away her support structure, gather allies, do stuff with binders, neutralize some of their other enemies... instead, she's forcing them to fight in suboptimal conditions. They don't have time to prepare, they're worried about all the other nasty things they're ignoring (like Chavram), and so on.
Besides, using them as bait gives her a shot at eating some Epic-level characters...

 

[Lord Zardoz]

But this opens a new problem: why wouldn't the queen consume the prisoners newly released from the Shadowtaker's Bestiary?

I would simply justify it as a case of not all souls are the same. More intrestingly, perhaps she did not need to kill them to confiscate their souls. If she posseses the souls of the prisoners, she can acheive domination type effects on them, or if not here, then Fraz. After all, Fraz wants to own the souls, not destroy them.

As a side note, why did your players cause that prison break in the first place. Is it possible that Fraz or the Queen manipulated events to guarantee the release of those prisoners? The players may have destroyed many Githyanki to do so, but so what? The Queen just restored them later. And now that the prisoners are loose, Fraz or your Queen can command them from afar. Rather then causing a set back, your players may have advanced the githyanki plans.

Sure, its revisionist history, but if it works out, why not?

END COMMUNICATION

 

[WizarDru]

I would simply justify it as a case of not all souls are the same. More intrestingly, perhaps she did not need to kill them to confiscate their souls. If she posseses the souls of the prisoners, she can acheive domination type effects on them, or if not here, then Fraz. After all, Fraz wants to own the souls, not destroy them.

Quite true...but I envision Fraz as working towards something bigger...mostly increasing his power base dramatically, and manipulating everyone into doing his dirtywork for him.

As a side note, why did your players cause that prison break in the first place. Is it possible that Fraz or the Queen manipulated events to guarantee the release of those prisoners?

The Bestiary was a storehouse for a being called the ShadowTaker. Once a powerful Suel sorceror involved in the downfall of the Suel Empire, he turned to worshipping Tharizdun and eventually transformed into a Worm-who-Walks, and began quietly subjugating most of the major magical societies of the Flanaess. He also captured various beings of varying power and usefulness and bound them to this prison. He could then pull them out of the prison and use them like a set of clothes, leaving his original form safely at home, as it were.

Without getting into Alienist territory, suffice it to say that the Bestiary was actually a subversion of an artifact of Pelor that the party wanted liberated from his evil clutches (nad wanted to remove his liberty, as well).

My prevailing theory is that Fraz manipulated the players and others to eliminate the ShadowTaker and use the Githyanki to distract the players. The Gith of course, look advantage as soon as possible, staging an invasion during the ensuing chaos that came from the ShadowTaker's 'death throes'.

In case I didn't mention this prior, I should explain that. The ShadowTaker spent the better part of the last half-millenia infiltrating and controlling all of the world's magic guilds. When he was destroyed, a layer of spells that he had lain down all triggered, taking 60-70% of the worlds mages with him. This counterstroke created more than a little chaos, as you might expect. During this time, with some help from Fraz, the Githyanki begin their incursion.

How does Fraz know how to help? He arranged it all, of course, what with him being a 'friend' of Orcus, and all. Orcus has violated one of the most serious rules of interplanar behavior, and transposed himself to Rauxes on the Prime, and then done his level best to 'seal' the prime against planar travel. Fraz has negotiated for the Gith to be allowed to bypass this restriction, without telling them how he's managed it.

Hmmm....ideas germinating, now.

Here's another topic to consider: whenever any of the Shadowtaker's servants were slain in the Crypts, they would mutter the following statement: "The Bargain must be Kept." The first group, a series of advanced and classed Barghests, were originally collectively called *you guessed it) The Bargainers. When any creature who uters this statment died, the players would visually see the soul literally ripped from the dying body, and yanked by a red cord of energy (like a silver cord) and pulled away through the walls.

Originally, I intended the bargain to simply be more power from the Shadowtaker in return for their souls, and that there would be one ultra-super Barghest who would be called 'The Bargainer'. This never came to pass, and I disliked the idea after time passed. So now, all of the Shadowtaker's servants have said it, and most died for the bargain. In the most recent session, the players destroyed a former servant of the ST, and the same thing happened, but the soul was yanked skywards out of sight.

The question then becomes: WHAT IS THE BARGAIN, and who holds it? I'm playing with tieing it into the Githyanki queen's consumption of souls, somehow, or Fraz...but I'm not sure how, just yet. Suggestions, anyone?

 

[WizarDru]

Now, here's a wonderful thing. Blackdirge, monster builder extrodinaire, fashioned this fellow for me, in repsonse to my request.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1188277#post1188277

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Here's another topic to consider: whenever any of the Shadowtaker's servants were slain in the Crypts, they would mutter the following statement: "The Bargain must be Kept." The first group, a series of advanced and classed Barghests, were originally collectively called *you guessed it) The Bargainers. When any creature who uters this statment died, the players would visually see the soul literally ripped from the dying body, and yanked by a red cord of energy (like a silver cord) and pulled away through the walls.

<snip>

The question then becomes: WHAT IS THE BARGAIN, and who holds it? I'm playing with tieing it into the Githyanki queen's consumption of souls, somehow, or Fraz...but I'm not sure how, just yet. Suggestions, anyone?

Ok. As I understand this, your still in need of a suitably evil grand master plan for Fraz to be working towards. Something that involves a large quantity of souls, and isolating the Prime material plane from the rest of the planar cosmology of your campaign. The plan in question involves some sort of Bargain. Whom the bargain involves, exactly your not yet certain. The players involved are as follows:

Fraz: - Wants Souls
Githyanki Queen: - Wants to invade and conquer the Prime
Orcus: - Wants to seal off the Prime.

I think I have a suitably convoluted and evil plan for you. However, it will take a while to describe in suitable detail.

1) Orcus wants to seal off the prime so that the souls of the dying cannot go to their final resting place. They will instead stay with him on the Prime which then becomes Orcus's unwilling slaves. After all the souls on Prime have died and are bound to Orcus, Orcus becomes the absolute power in the multiverse.

Point one is farily standard as far as D&D campaign plots go. But now for the fun part.

2) Fraz is an outsider from the 'Far Prime', and the Githyanki were Mortals from the Far Prime. (see Manual of the Planes, 211). The Far Realm is essentially a plane of existance that essentially exists apart from the standard planar cosmology of a given D&D campaign. For lack of a better description, it simply barely exists. The Far Prime is the last stable element within the Far Realm, and Fraz was the last surviving mortal wizard from the Far Prime. The Far realm simply began unraveling a long time ago, and continues to do so.

Due to some form of Planar Conjuction, the Far Astral and the 'Near Astral" collided, and beings in the Far Astral could cross from one astral to the other. Fraz crossed over to inspect this suddenly accessable realm. The Githyanki, who were having a rought time of it in the far astral, were able to follow Fraz across into the Near Astral. They promptly began competing with the Githzerai. Fraz was caught up in the fighting and killed. From there, Fraz's soul found its way to Orcus.

Orcus however, did not know what to make of Fraz's soul. It was simply too alien, and was already 'dead' from the perspective of Orcus. So the two began disucssing the finer metaphysical points of their respective universes. Once they realized what was happening, they worked out a way to exploit the conjunction of the Far Astral with the Near Astral. To make it work, they needed the help of the Githyanki Queen.

The Githyanki Queen is able to bind souls from the Near Realm to the Far Realm. This causes a soul bound to the far realm to be pulled into the Far Realm when it dies. Each new soul added to the Far Realm is a stabilizing influence. Orcus is able intercept Far Realm Souls as they die, and essentially kick them back out into the Prime. Fraz is responsible for keeping the doorway open.

The plan is to kick enough souls back to the Far Realm to make it a going concern again. Doing this means making every Mortal Soul that dies bound to the Far Realm. Isolating the Prime makes this easier. Once enough souls are bound to the Far Realm, the Far Realm will begin to stabilize into its original configuration. This will allow the Githyanki and Fraz to return home.

But whats in this for Orcus, you say?

Adding new souls to the Far Realm and binding them there will stabilize the Far Realm, but it wont stay stable without gods. The mortals of the Far Realm managed to kill them all. Fraz and the Githyanki Queen plan on becoming the new gods of the Far Realm. But being mortal, they just dont quite know how to take the final step towards godhood. Orcus knows how to do that, and has been trying to do so for years. However, the competition in the Near Realm is a bit stiff. Orcus intends to set himself up as the only God to exist in both the Far Realm AND the Near Realm. Becoming a god of the Far Realm will be much easier, but it needs mortal souls as well as gods to stabilize. So Orcus is sealing off the prime to help force enough souls into the far realm for Fraz, the Githyanki Queen, and Orcus to become its gods.

Your bargainers fit into this by having chosen to voluntarily bind themselves to the Far Realm. Doing so means that they cannot actually die in the Near Realm, unless Orcus wants them too. Souls that are sent to the Far Realm dwell on the Far Astral. And the Red astral cords that your players are seeing are a manifestation of this.

Howeve, this planar conjuction is not permanant, and cannot be made permanant unless the Far Realm is stabilized. Fraz and the Queen are simply running out of time. If the Far Realm slides into oblivion, then Fraz and the Queen cease to exist. Orcus will only lose a minor bit of power that he can easily replace, and has nothing to lose either way this goes. After all, if it fails, he still has his gig as the "Demon Prince of the Undead" to occupy him.

So, is that a bit much for your purposes, Wizardru?

END COMMUNICATION

 

[WizarDru]

Those who've been following my story hour will know by now which of the wonderful ideas presented here were incorporated. For those who haven't, this is basically what happened:

(note: I've added spoiler tags for those who don't want to know what the bad guys are REALLY up to. Scroll down to the bottom for the information requests).

Spoiler

Vlaakith, the Githyanki Queen made a pact directly with Fraz. Fraz, meanwhile, made a deal with Orcus. Fraz then made a deal with the ShadowTaker, in that case presenting himself as an agent of Tharizdun himself. This, collectively, was the Bargain.

Sometime in the far, far distant past, the Flanaess was primarily populated by the Flan/Ur-Flan to the far East, and the proto-humans that would become the children of Gith. Fraz recruited many of the Ur-Flan to his dark goals, some worshipping him as a god. With his help, the demon prince kidnapped the whole of the proto-Gith race and sent them to the astral, in return for the Illithid's help in beginning to unlock his prison. This allowed Tharizdun's shadow to be cast, and his malevolence to be felt again in the world.

At the same time, Fraz recruited the ShadowTaker to his cause, bringing him to worship Tharizdun, and preparing him to work as an agent for the Shadow of Tharizdun (eventually to be known as the Shadow King). His reason for this had several purposes. First, he had a ready ally, who he would eventually capitalize on with the Bargain. Second, it furthered his goals where Tharizdun was concerned. Third, it allowed him to create someone who could act as a magnet for the attentions of interlopers and dogooders who might be looking for a mastermind. That the Shadowtaker proved very effective at hidingn himself was problematic, but it allowed him some degree of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Fraz begins, in disguise, feeding the wizard Vehn and the future Egg of Coot information from Mechanus on how to construct a variety of devices...all of which involve tapping the soul's energy or transference of the soul. He then introduces the Egg of Coot to the Shadowtaker, and lets events take their course.

The ShadowTaker, by this point, introduces the Egg to the Shadow King. The very exposure to the Shadow of Tharizdun drives the Egg incurably insane and very pliable. He soon becomes an agent of the Shadowtaker, and feeds the knowledge he's gotten from Mechanus up the link to the Shadowtaker, who also begins investigating it, in hopes of using to free his master (little realizing that it all is part of a plan of Fraz's).

Using another intermediary, Fraz approaches the Gith queen, acting as an agent of Orcus. Using the same information that he will share in part with the Egg, he shows her how to tap Elven souls for power. He then helps her construct the void chamber, using her entire palace as a broadcast device to transfer the souls...some to him, and the majority to Orcus. He then approaches her directly, and teaches her how to tap the power of the dead god, and convinces her to research the topic further, again as part of his ultimate goal.

Fraz meanwhile helps Orcus return from the dead and helps reestablish him, in return for much of the knowledge of soul transference that he eventually provides to the mortals. Beyond that, he forges a pact with Orcus for mutual benficience, which is why he funnels the souls primarily to the demon prince of the undead. All of which is part of his coordination towards having several different beings gather different pieces of the puzzle he's assembling. He further emboldens Orcus to assualt the prime through his earthly agents in Rauxes.

Fraz further works with the remaining Ur-Flan cultists still on the prime, having them infiltrate the druids of the old order, and then employs these agents in the waking of the Primals, all as a distraction. He attempts to enlist the aid of some of Iuz's agents, but finds that the Old one is too much of a threat, so he works to weaken the Old One's postion through the creation and manipulation of the Horned Society. He also uses the Horned Society to investigate the mysertious place known only as the Far Realm.

In the meantime, he also works through agents within the Scarlet Brotherhood, secretly swaying them away from their masters into the worship of Tharizdun. These he directs to recover the Theorparts, to help release Tharizdun from his prison. He creates rifts among the Scaled Council, using agents and direct interaction with the Chromatics. At the same time, he works to destabilize the Chromatics, using many of the skills learned from Orcus to keep Ashardalon alive, and dispatching him to become a thorn in Infernus side.

While not everything goes his way, he manages to manipulate most of the players to his way of thinking, and moving all of the pieces towards his own personal endgame.

His desire? To release Tharizdun using the Theorparts, and then using them to drain his power and cast a significantly weakened Tharizdun into the Far Realms and bind him there, seizing the mantle of diety for himself.

(phew).

Follow all that?

Now, this brings me to the matter of the impending Astral conflict. Orcus has violated the injunction against direct interaction on the Prime...but he isn't a diety, so it's somewhat more tricky, legally speaking. The question, then, is this:

What are some good reasons that the dieties are holding back? I have the vague notion that there is a set of laws/rules that only native gods to the Prime may remain there for any length of time and interact. Orcus is allowed on the prime for longer periods, as are all the demon princes....but the Interdiction of planar travel is gross violation of the unwritten rules. Clearly, the dieties are arguing over the hows, whys and wherefores....but does anyone have any more specific ideas?

And I'd like to do some more with the Druid's council, since introducing the idea that at least two of the Druids want a fight for supremacy. I created the name "The Barrow King" for one. Does anyone have some ideas on what I can do to make a unique druid with such a name? For that matter, other than having wildshape enter into the contest, what else can I do for such a series of contests besides a bunch of punch-outs?

Lastly, I've had Chavram travelling the Underdark, making alliances with the Drow to help him capture many of the buried binders. His grandson, Dravot's older brother Kaltin, secretly possesses free will from his grandfather, and has been plotting against him. He's arranged for a meeting with Dravot, to set some sort of plot in motion. But the question is, what plot? I haven't worked that one out, either.

Once again, thanks in advance for your rat-bastardry.