Challenging my high-lvl group (NPCs and monsters; my players shouldn't read this!)

[WizarDru]

That's DM Speak for "I haven't had to decide yet." My assumption is that she didn't do it alone, because she was under divine command. Probably she was ordered to, rebelled, and was forced to - I'm not sure yet. I'll decide when I figure out what's best for the story.

Sometimes it really helps, knowing that DMs whose work I respect often don't work out certain details until they're relevant. I often wonder if I'm not doing enough work...especially as my players are now about to go epic.


As for Tao and Galanna, you have lots of options. Consider this: what if Galanna DIDN'T have the sanction from the other gods to kill Imbrindarla? Suppose, for example, that Aeos, in a fit of rage, decides that this battle must end...NOW. He confronts and battles Imbrindarla, who bests him, while Galanna watches. Imbrindarla, emboldened, decides to SLAY Aeos, and Galanna acts to defend Aeos, killing her before she realizes the ramifications of her action. The potential for where this and other such solutions could lead are huge. Suppose Calphas had to stand in judgement of Galanna, and found her guilty, along with the other good gods. You could play this out a lot of different ways, many of which would shuffle the players around.

For that matter, exactly what happens when the goddess of death...well...dies? Does someone assume her portfolios, or will people stop dying, or what have you? A battle could ensue between some of the gods to try and take over her portfolios...or they could be delegated by the other gods to a new diety: perhaps an incompetent one (by divine standards).

Believe me, I didn't think it a bad idea to kill Imbrindarla. Suprising, yes. but a good idea.


As for RtToEE, I think the big problem starts at the CRM section of the module (which, regretably, is most of it). The Hommlet section of the module is great, and offers lots of role-playing opportunities...but once the players arrive in Rastor and begin assualting the mines, there's little opportunity for anything but kill-or-be-killed. I'm running my group through it as a secondary game...but I'm already trying to find ways to make it more than just mindless combat (and thus giving the bard more to do).

 

[Kugar]

Idea Time.

1) No matter what, killing a god can easily escalate into a divine free for all. As politics degrade into a series of assassinations attempts, Gelanna will become the scapegoat.
a) Punishment ala FR Time of Troubles. - Gelanna's divinity id ripped from her and as mortal descendent must perform penance designed to right the wrong of killing death and bring her closer to her charges. She flees to Tao for both help and protection.
b) Gelanna is imprisoned - Her demigods and celestials are taxed trying to fill in for her. Gelanna's mortal agents have to kick it up a notch, while at the same time losing their most powerful magics because only Gelanna herself could grant them. Tao is blessed with a fragment of her goddess's divinity and learns of a plot to destroy her imprisoned goddess.
c) Trial by mortal. Remember the Odyssey? Now imagine if your Gelanna came down to Tao herself and asked her to take up her banner, or else Nature would suffer.

2) Life is good. Gelanna is rewarded.
a) She need a bigger staff. Tao is chosen as a prospect to become a demigod and must undergo testing.
b) Rebuild the Order of the Horn It is found out that the Order of the Horn is prophesized to play a critical role in the upcoming crisis and Gelanna charges Tao with the task of building a mighty army.
c) Perversions of nature With more power comes more knowledge and Gelanna tells Tao there are ancient wards on the (enter big evil thing of you choice, maybe even the Worms) that were damaged by the fall. When she made them she stipulated a set on conditions that only Tao can fulfill be met before they can be visited.

3) Other –
Imbindarla Imbindarla cults attempt to assassinate Tao, and she feels the suffering of others close to the Goddess as they are successfully assassinated, captured, and/or tortured. Tao may feel the need to protect others, or se may chose to try to rescue the imprisoned people/souls.

That's What I came up with for now
Kugar

 

[BryonD]

So, are all of the magic clocks in the world now blinking

12:00

12:00

12:00

????

Seriously, did magic just "skip" 30 seconds, or was it really off. And if so, how does this impact continuing magic effects?

I don't see magic weapons or other items being harmed. But on-going spells could be different. For example, just think of the impact of every continual flame in the world ceasing to burn.

 

[WizarDru]

I suspect it may have been more akin to a universal anti-magic field over all of Spira. It's difficult to say, since we haven't seen enough evidence either way. The walls of water could be the result of a permanent magic installation, for example. If all of the players active spells were dispelled, as opposed to just supressed, then you have your answer.

If it was the absolute loss of all active magic for thirty seconds, the effects could be catastrophic to some places. Imagine all the things that would go mad in Eversink alone, let alone elsewhere.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

How is this for an evil idea.

A Deity of Undead is required. It is required because many form of undead are punishments and because many other forms of undead are states one can enter purely through manipulation of magic.

So while everyone may hate the fact the first real truth is you have to have a Deity of the Undead to oversee this.

Now we have the current situation. The Goddess of Undeath was killed without a clear heir in line.

This really causes the problem that undead everywhere are reclaiming their true souls and causing other grief.

So now the Gods know there is only one solution.

A new Deity of the Undead is necessary.

Who to pick for this unwelcome job?

How about the Goddess Galenna who slayed the last Goddess of Undeath without permission?

But wait. This means there is no longer a Goddess of Nature. One of those is just as needed.

Enter Tao. She is a member of the party that started the whole situation by passing the proper info along to the church of Aeos.

You can either be obvious and ascend her right in front of the party, or you can be subtle and remove her another way and let them learn as time passes about the new Goddess of Nature whose name is not Tao but whose clerics speak of her in ways that remind the party of Tao.


How does that sound?

 

[Greybar]

Doc:
Reminds me of Zelazny's Lords of Light with the Gods being "positions" to be filled in the heirarchy - the "new" Shiva running around with the token of his old position because he's more comfortable with it, etc. Makes it all sound silly, I know, though it wasn't in context.

So a new Goddess of Undeath that happens to prefer the use of a bow, except now it fires bone arrows...

John

 

[Moleculo]

can you say undead god bound to the new god of undead?

 

[Kaodi]

Tao & Galanna

That was a nasty idea Doc, about Galanna becoming Goddess of Undeath and Tao becoming the new deity of Nature. That could probably be used in some form in *lots* of campaigns to great effect. Some of the interesting benefits would be the conflict in t he Church of Galanna... how many of her followers would stay loyal to her, versus loyal to the post.

This morning when I posted, I didn't have time to give any more follow up ideas about a quest, but I do now so I might as well.

What if that the death of Imbrindarla caused something in the celestial balance to go offline (to speak in modern terms), causing all of the magic to be surpressed (perhaps that was the only immediately obvious change from the players perspective, there could of been others... who can say Dungeons & Darwinism?). Anyway, the 30 seconds later, the *backup generator* came online, and everything appeared to return to normal. The only problem is, the backup cant last forever, it was only created as a buffer, and someone is needed to restore *power* to the system. The problem is, to avoid tampering, especially divine tampering, the access to this *generator* was placed in the plane of Carceri. This could mean that either it was placed there due to the strong restrictive magics of the plane, or that the prisoners placed there were because of the original restrictive nature created for the *device*. Anyway, only a mortal (or just someone from the Prime Material in case Tao is celestial is some way and I have forgotten) can access the power grid, and only with the permission of all remaining deities of importance. Galanna has been given the task, and she chooses Tao. And so on, and so on...

I think I have swam down far enough under the deep end, time to come back up for air .

 

[Burne]

An simple but interesting idea is that Galanna didn't mean to kill Imbrindarla. She was commanded to "hound Imbrindarla for 40 gazillion years" and slew Imbrindarla by accident.

Possibly, Galanna was tricked into killing Imbrindarla. Perhaps Imbrindarla wasn't the one interfering with Aeos all that time ago, but someone else setting her up for a fall.

Perhaps, Galanna didn't kill Imbrindarla. That phantom shoulder pain was an echo of Galanna's pain, as some unknown god (A worm God?) disables Galanna and kills Imbrindarla.

All undead everywhere being self aware smacks of the Aeyx(sic) arc, perhaps someone wanted Imbrindarla out of the way because "Undead are people too!"

Suggestions for you.....

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

What about, all the undead start turning into big, scary conglomerations (corpse gatherers, and say total the stats of 3 zombies (except ability scores) and make a walking corruption; i.e. 6d12+9 HD, attacks 3 slams , slam 1d6 +1, etc., you get the idea.