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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 2856555" data-attributes="member: 3051">While the Defenders are probably the only ones alive who've seen an actual worm, most of them probably wouldn't be involved in that sort of discussion.  Some are implementers of plans, not formulators; some do tactics, not strategy; some use swords, while magic will be the key here.  So some (like Galthia) wouldn't be involved.  The exceptions would probably be Velendo and Agar, and Stone Bear would be personally involved due to his time with Elder.The obvious answer is to let the party members play other key NPCs.  Not Ioun, but heads of some of the other power blocs, especially those that don't bring any information to the table.  But, they'll have political power, and the will to use it to further their own private agendas.  All that power in one place would have natural consequences; some of these groups would hate each other (or be in actual declared wars), and while they might recognize the need to defeat the worms, that doesn't mean they'll put aside their differences; they might think that the group would have a BETTER chance if the "disruptive influence" was removed.  Some would just use this meeting as an excuse to force other negotiations (say, if Ioun refused to participate unless Corsai joined his empire once and for all) or demand reparations for past offenses.  To top it all off, there's probably someone out there who'd want to take this opportunity to wipe out all of those people at once (say, someone who worships the worms?)(This was based on a really fun adventure I played in a long time ago.  In a human kingdom, the prince was about to marry an elven princess from the neighboring empire; some people were for it, others against.  We were all ~15th level, and each character was one of the key figures in the region (head of the assassin's guild, king's advisor, king's younger brother, demon, a few mercenary adventurers, and so on).  For a few weeks, we plotted, negotiated, bribed, attempted assassinations, etc., all leading up to a major civil war.  It was great as a short-term adventure; the DM just sat back and helped determine if each players' plans would work.)The big questions:> What do you want them to accomplish at this meeting?  Do they know enough about the worms' plan to be able to actually strategize?  Do you want it to remain purely about the worms, or will other political matters end up being resolved at this time?> Do you already know of a way to defeat the worms?  If so, are you trying to lead them towards that, or is it something they'll need to figure out themselves?> Which are the most powerful gods in your pantheon?  If it's by age, I'd assume Aedrae and Trea, but I've never seen their churches mentioned in the story hour.  Presumably, any powerful churches would send representatives; it wouldn't all fall on Calphas, Galanna, and Aeos to handle.If you decided that it'd take the Gods themselves to capture the worms, you could even combine all of these suggestions; give each of the players an actual god to work with, and play out the actual battle using all the deity rules.  After all, it seems sort of ridiculous that a group of mortals will somehow beat an enemy the gods had a hard time with, AND it's definitely a situation that'd motivate the gods to take direct action.  Seems like a good end-of-campaign tangent to go off on.Well, how he got it might make a difference, but the short version in my mind is that it'd trigger a "final war" scenario; that is, it's the one thing so unacceptable that the githyanki would throw everything into the war against the githzerai, before they're really ready for it.  That might give the natural edge to the githzerai, once the first battles are past, and the end result of that might be the lich-queen losing once and for all.  But, this assumes he JUST acquired it; if he's had it for a while now, that logic probably wouldn't work.(Actually, this is kinda similar to the suggestion we had made for Agar's wedding; reacquiring the sword would force the Big Bad to take unacceptable risks to get it back, which could end up making things worse as the players foil the plots.)Another possibility is pretty cliche'd: by destroying the artifact, Galthia would weaken its maker.  (Just played the ToEE video game)  The plus side here is that a sword doesn't really seem like something Galthia would use, so it's not like it's doing him much good as is.  What'd be really funny is if you could tie this into Mechanus' fate.  As in, using an artifact of Chaos to force the lich-queen to travel to a plane of Law, where she'd be much weaker... nah, too close to how the Ivory King was beaten.  But the Modrons have to be involved somehow.</blockquote>

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