Crusade against Lolth - need DM advice

[Herobizkit]

Hey gang,

My 3.5 solo campaign is coming up to its end, and my solo player isn't ready to retire just yet. He is playing a Gestalt Sorceress//Favored Soul of Eilistraee. Once the current campaign is complete, he thought it might be nice to storm the Abyss and destroy Lolth.

Yeah, I know. This event will be significant as he is trying to bring the Drow to the surface, and if s/he can destroy Lolth, this will have a long-term effect on the campaign world, eventually "curing" Drow of their evil influence and making them a more viable surface-dwelling citizen.

In the campaign world, the Elves are not an origin race - they come from the stars and crashed on the planet. Drow exist only because the normally Light-bearing Elves ended up tainted by the God of Nothing, their racial mortal enemy.

So, how would one... um... stage an assault on an alternate plane and, um, kill a Goddess?

 

[Alzrius]

It wouldn't be an assault. Such a character would have absolutely no hope of even reaching Lolth, let alone killing her, if he went for a frontal attack.

The only way to give this character a ghost of a chance is to treat this like an assassination attempt. The character is going to need to sneak into Lolth's home and kill her before she or any of he servitors know what's going on. Of course, this will be nearly impossible to do.

I strongly recommend using a particular spell-combo that allows for what I call "ultimate undetectability" so that the character has a chance of bypassing Lolth's minions (and actually reaching Lolth without being annihilated from afar). Namely, use one step beyond from The Complete Book of Eldritch Might and imperceptible from Rich Burlew's The (Even More) Hidden Book article. Both of these at once will make you completely invisible to Lolth's servitors, if not Lolth herself. Remember to also use some other spell like ethereal jaunt that will make you incorporeal, and you basically won't exist for your enemies.

This character is also going to need a major artifact or two to seriously have any hope of defeating Lolth. In fact, the best artifacts (and even epic magic items) you'll find for this are, in my opinion, laid out in the Immortal's Handbook: Epic Bestiary Vol. 1.

For example, one of the book's artifacts is the sword Godsend, which on a critical hit separates a god from their divinity. However, the sword is made out of pure orichalcum (the substance of an extinct star) and so requires a 115 Strength to be able to wield. Moreover, the sword is one of six artifact swords wielded by the vampire Alabaster, who (along with his one hundred vampiric thralls) assaults entire pantheons for fun. Good luck getting him to loan you the sword.

Of course, there's more the character can do, such as find powerful sub-epic and epic spells (for more on that, I strongly recommend downloading The Practical Enchanter and Eclipse: The Codex Persona, both of which are not only excellent, but FREE. The former book details potentially thousands of new spells via its spell templates and example spells, while the latter book has a chapter devoted entirely to epic spells; these simply use escalating spell levels (e.g. 10th-level spells, 11th-level spells, etc.) rather than the epic spell system presented in the ELH). This will likely involve a lot of adventuring, as well as spell research, so that the character can prepare powerful summons, defenses, etc.

In short, just getting ready to attack Lolth is a campaign in and of itself.

 

[S'mon]

Acquire Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, convert it to 3.5e, and run it.

Simples.

Edit: Although you should also buy Immortal's Handbook: Epic Bestiary Vol. 1., especially as the author is my best friend.

 

[green slime]

It can happen anyway you want it to. Its your world, it works the way you want it to, regardless to what Alzrius may think is appropriate or canon.

That said, there are a multitude of ways you can put this into place, depending on the preferences of your player and yourself.

Humourous vs Serious
Epic vs Mundane
Easy vs Hard
Obvious vs Subterfuge
Single combat vs raised army invading the Demon's realm!
etc

As well as the consequences: What are alternative possibilities and consequences? Read Michael Moorcook's books for inspiration.

 

[Alzrius]

...regardless to what Alzrius may think is appropriate or canon.

Was that really necessary? The OP asked for advice, and I was providing it. I never said, or even implied, that anything beyond what I outlined was somehow not "appropriate or canon."

 

[S'mon]

Was that really necessary? The OP asked for advice, and I was providing it. I never said, or even implied, that anything beyond what I outlined was somehow not "appropriate or canon."

I think you could have prefaced "It wouldn't be an assault. Such a character would have absolutely no hope of even reaching Lolth, let alone killing her, if he went for a frontal attack" with "IMHO" or "Personally, I think" etc.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hello there Herobizkit!

One problem (or advantage?) you might have running such an adventure is the disparity of power between Lolth (in here official Faiths & Pantheons capacity) and her servants. So while Alzrius is correct in that a frontal assault would fail, a single character with a hope of defeating Lolth in combat would probably make mincemeat out of her (official) guards and servants.

In otherwords, Lolth is (officially) about CR 60, and a Balor is CR 20.

If you just want the player to stomp a mudhole in Lolth's forces and then face off against Lolth (the real challenge). Then that could work to your favour.

If the idea is to add a bit more verisimilitude to Lolth's realm/forces, then you will probably need to fill in the gaps between Balor and Lolth. I suggest unique Demon Lords and Princelings, probably some minor drow Deities, mechanical Devastation Spiders (to expand on an idea from Q1), some Abominations and so forth.

P.S. Thanks for the love Alzrius and S'mon.

 

[Upper_Krust]

I think you could have prefaced "It wouldn't be an assault. Such a character would have absolutely no hope of even reaching Lolth, let alone killing her, if he went for a frontal attack" with "IMHO" or "Personally, I think" etc.

Before you go giving advice on this one...how many hit points should 1E Lolth have on her homeplane again?

By the way Simon, that memory key Ingrid gave me was absolutely infested with computer viruses. Your myriad computers must be riddled with them, just letting you know.

 

[Alzrius]

I think you could have prefaced "It wouldn't be an assault. Such a character would have absolutely no hope of even reaching Lolth, let alone killing her, if he went for a frontal attack" with "IMHO" or "Personally, I think" etc.

That goes without saying - when I give advice, it's clearly what I think is good advice, which means it's my opinion. There's merit in people knowing that their opinions are just opinions and not facts, but that shouldn't mean that every declarative statement needs to have an "IMHO" disclaimer.

Other people being overly sensitive to that is their problem, not mine. IMHO.

 

[Herobizkit]

Thanks for all the help so far.

The very short answer is, yes, I want the PC to assault Lolth with the possibility of actually replacing her, or becoming the "new" Eilistraee. Once this happens, Drow will no longer be "Evil" and will eventually become just another subrace of Elves.