D&D Armageddon - Blood Wars End, Sigil Falls to Seige

[Paka]

Sigil falls, Sigil as the center of the resistance. Githyanki and Githzarai continue their war or make peace. Interesting decisions for the DM to make. The forces at war are epic and cosmos-shattering, nothing can be taken for granted anymore.

Ravenloft? Perhaps the Mist is working for the Fiends and works to bring some powerful forces for good into Ravenloft by turning their lives tragic and their love into hate.

After looking through the Manual of the Planes, I think when the Demons and Devils made peace the Blood Pact was drawn up on the Crawling City, home of the General of Gehenna, leader of the Yugoloths.

Why do I have Sigil fall? I thought it was such a pillar of the D&D mythos and having it fall to siege really drives home the larger than life vibe of the entire storyline. It is a city that should really never fall to a seige. But it works well as a home for the resistance too. I can see that as working well.

Thanks for reading, keep posting any ideas or images that pop into your head.

 

[Leopold]

I say stick with the core setting of using 'planescape' and the greyhawk worlds and nothing else. Don't delve into RL or DS or SJ or anything like that. Keep it simple

 

[Valiantheart]

The signing of a piece accord between the fiends who certainly have repercussions throughout the cosmos.

Prime's might rain blood on that day signifying the universe weeping or Clerics might hear their God's actually weeping and be unable to shut it out. Perhaps a good indication that a Prime is about to be the next target of the united fiends would be hundreds of Angel carcasses raining from the sky onto the worlds as a precursor.

Think big apocalyptic allusions and portents.

 

[Paka]

The signing of a piece accord between the fiends who certainly have repercussions throughout the cosmos.

....

Think big apocalyptic allusions and portents.

Rock on, great stuff.

Maybe peace accords and written pacts across the planes catch fire or become drenched in blood. Everyone with an oath has nightmares in which their fellow oathtaker has broken their oath in the most terrible way imaginable. The Demons and Devils who have captured angels and celestials kill all of their prisoners of war in a dark ritual in which the bodies are spilled into the Styxx. The corpses of these angels are washing up on the shores of rivers across the planes.

 

[La Bete]

Across the planes the corpses of these angels are washing up on the shores of rivers across the planes.

Now thats some creepy imagery.

carry on... -great stuff.

 

[Valiantheart]

Rock on, great stuff.

Maybe peace accords and written pacts across the planes catch fire or become drenched in blood. Everyone with an oath has nightmares in which their fellow oathtaker has broken their oath in the most terrible way imaginable. The Demons and Devils who have captured angels and celestials kill all of their prisoners of war in a dark ritual in which the bodies are spilled into the Styxx. The corpses of these angels are washing up on the shores of rivers across the planes.

Good, good.

It would be a good idea for your PCs to visit a chared and ruined world where the bodies of all the different humanoids have been piled up into a massive mound reaching far into the smoking blood red sky.

If you want to get really dark with the oath thing you could have an event that breaks all bonds. Children turn on their parents. Pets and Servants kill their masters. Husbands and wives at each others necks. Longtime friends suddenly become blood enemies. When the event ends the PCs can look around to see a world wrapped in chaos and overcome by the friends and loved ones they slew with their own hands (not the PCs of course).

Also, perhaps a Cosmos spanning plague would be a great portent. One that strikes down primes and planars alike. One that even Gods arent immune too.

 

[Paka]

The Blood Plague that followed the Pact wasn't engineered by the fiends at all. It was later discovered to be only an unfortunate side effect, causing the eyes of all of the afflicted, from prime material mortals to greater gods and goddess to bleed from the eyes like gruesome tears. Not only the gods but their statues bled thus.

The Stars and the moons turned a shade of blood red for some time. The weak and infirmed were killed by the plague but most strong and hardy folk were merely cursed with terrible night terrors. By the time the last of the plague victims was cured, Sigil had fallen and the war had begun.

Many adventuring companies who pledged to destroy this Blood Pact named themselves after the great events that signaled the union. Sisters of the Red Tears, the Tearblood Nightmare and the Order of the Angel's Gravediggers are all names taken by those who picked up spellbook and sword in hopes of making the planes a safer place.

Sometimes they managed to liberate a gate or stop a city from falling under infernal influence but often they died in unmarked graves, or were sent to fiendish prison demi-planes.

 

[Shemeska]

I'm curious, where did you read this nonsense? There are no ArchYugoloths. To my knowledge they didn't include Anthraxus in the BOVD (yes, I'm going back to 1E AD&D) and he is the only Yugoloth that MIGHT be equal in power to the Archdevils and the Demon Princes.

I suggest you go back and read 'Faces of Evil:The Fiends', the 'Planes of Conflict' Box set, and 'Hellbound:The Blood War', for information regarding the Baernaloths as well as their roll in the formation of the Yugoloths, the start of the Blood War, etc.

All TSR Planescape books.

Stats-wise the Baern aren't anything to call home about, except that fiend's seem to fear them and obey them almost without question. Yugoloths seem to venerate them with a devotion that approaches that reserved for normally godlike beings. Most importantly, they 'know' things. They possess secrets of such magnitude and potency that it would shatter the faith of a celestial, and indeed it did in the form of a solar known as the Maeldur Et Kavurik (see Hellbound and the story of the solar's corruption by the Baernaloth Daru Ib Shamiq).

As far as Arch'loths and Unique Yugoloth lords go, there are indeed a number of them. Anthraxus the former Oinoloth, Mydianchlarus the current Oinoloth, Helekanalaith the Keeper of the Tower of the Arcanaloths, Bubonix the Lord of the Tower of Incarnate Pain and self proclaimed Overlord of Carceri, Cholerix a general and vassal of Bubonix, Taba the Infiltrator of the Planes (ie perfect shapeshifter, among other things), Xenghara the Fallen, Cerlic/Charon the Lord of the Marraenaloths, Typhus a Blood War mercenary leader for sale to the highest bidder.

And then looming over them all is the General of Gehenna, perhaps a myth created by the Oinoloth, perhaps a godslayer, perhaps a returned Baernaloth, or most commonly whispered to be the first and greatest Ultraloth of his entire race, the chosen champion of the Baernaloths and the creator of the Heart of Darkness. The Heart was a gem created by himself at the direction of his creators that purged the Yugoloths of the taint of law and chaos, and from this driven out taint was formed the first Tanar'ri and Baatezu who were then herded and exiled to the Abyss and Baator (in the latter case displacing the Ancient Baatorians).

The Baernaloths, of which very few are known or suspected to remain on the planes, the others have 'departed' elsewhere, council and direct a select few of the unique Yugoloths, pulling the puppet strings of their children essentially. A number of them, known as The Demented, is thought to hold council with the General of Gehenna himself. These Baern are though to not reject law and chaos in their interpretation of neutral evil as an abstract concept, but instead to simultaneously embrace the random, destructive impulse of chaos along with the rigid tyrrany of law, embracing both extremes in their concept of true NE.

One of the Baernaloths, known by the name of Apomps the Triple Aspected or Triple Faced, attempted to emulate the actions of his brothers and sisters when they created the Yugoloths as the chosen race of evil. In his madness he created his own children the Gehreleths (Demodands) that were twisted, flawed, chaotic mockeries of the Yugoloths. The other Baern were enraged at his hubris and, fleeing for his life, Apomps gathered his own children and fled into self imposed exile to Carceri where the worship of his creations elevated him to godhood. He and his children still harbor a dire hatred of the Yugoloths, though the feeling is largely mutual with the 'loths in regards to the Gehreleths. Only the small numbers of the Gehreleths, and their divine patronage by Apomps itself has prevented the 'loths from obliterating them. The 'loths, bereft of any divine aid are at the best wary of large scale conflict with Apomp's children.

 

[Shemeska]

I can see Sigil as a refuge, but not a center of resistance. It's a neutral ground, and if it became the home of one side of a planes spanning war, that neutrality of faiths, purposes and philosophies would be skewed one direction or another. I can't see The Lady allowing that to happen. I can see it serving the role of say, Switzerland though, just a Switzerland with an unknowable protector capable of slaying deities with a glance and barring them irrevocably from the city at will.

Perhaps it's just that I'm a Planescape purist and don't care to sacrifice the setting's sacred cow upon the barbecue, that being the inviolable place of The Lady within Sigil. She's a plot device more so than an NPC to be leading refugees around the planes.

Of course I also might have a bit of nitpicking and spoilsport about me concerning the whole idea since I just wrote the 3e Guide to Sigil for Planewalker.com.

 

[Paka]

I can see Sigil as a refuge, but not a center of resistance. It's a neutral ground, and if it became the home of one side of a planes spanning war, that neutrality of faiths, purposes and philosophies would be skewed one direction or another.

It could be like a fantasy Casablanca. "Of all the taverns in all the planes, why'd she have to walk into this one."

Have fun with the idea. That's what these forums are all about, right? I'm just vomiting out ideas here.