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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 1188627" data-attributes="member: 704">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 SoulsGithyanki Queen: - Wants to invade and conquer the PrimeOrcus: - 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</blockquote>

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