Destroy the Forgotten Realms Part 2

[Sammael]

By established Realmslore, Dendar the Night Serpent is one of the three Elder Eternal Evils (the other two being Kezef and the Ityak-Ortheel, the Elf-Eater). Dendar is the living embodiment of Toril's nightmares, and the harbinger of the end of Toril, the gods, and Realmspace. She lives in a cave near the Crystal Spire (in the Grey Waste according to the Great Wheel cosmology). According to legend, when the end draws near, she will crawl out of the Peaks of Flame and move forward to eat the sun. Of all the gods, only Ubtao was willing to commit himself to being on the eternal watch against Dendar, which is why he was given supreme rulership over Chult. If Ubtao doesn't stop Dendar, the end. Dendar is really an aspect of Nidhogg, the Norse world serpent, who gnaws on the roots of Ygdrassil (which is why her lair was set in Nilfhelm in the Grey Waste) and will die at Thor's hand at Ragnarok.

Kezef the Chaos Hound is also known as Ravager of the Heavens. He lives to spread chaos, and was at some point imprisoned in Pandemonium by the collective efforts of FR deities (good and evil). At some point, he bit off Tyr's hand, broke free, ran amok in Cyric's Bone Castle, and chased Mask. It appears as if he has been somehow subdued again, because 3E makes no mention of him. Yet.

Ityak-Ortheel, the Elf Eater, is Malar's "pet." It is a killing machine that lives in the Abyss and is only brought fourth by Malar's whims. It particularly enjoys eating elves (because he only derives sustenance from elven spirits), hence the name.

All three Eternal Evils are Entities that rival the power of gods. They cannot be destroyed, although they can be hurt and forced to flee (if sufficiently wounded). Their stats appeared in 2nd edition Powers and Pantheons.

 

[Carpe DM]

If your goal is to kill off Faerun's rampant DMPCs, why not just kill them off? Seriously, how many get heavy play? They don't even have to die from the same cause.

If you want a system-wide cause, again, it seems to me you have better ways to kill DMPCs than ending the world. (By the way: the Faerun DMPCs are by far the best equipped to *survive* worldwide devastation, so it's not clear you're picking anything up in terms of versimilitude by invoking a devastation.)

Let's try a few:

The Eater of Souls: a death construct from before the fall of Netheril is awoken by the Phaerimm in an attempt to win the war. The Eater was designed to sense the life-force of Netherese wizards (read: epic-level characters at least) and suck them dry. No known technology stops it.

After Elminster, Arunsun, and the pesky Seven Sisters, Sszass Tam, and whoever else are annihilated (and their souls consumed, resurrect *that*), the players are sent on a desperate mission to stop the Eater from changing its mission and beginning to devour all souls of power on Toril.

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A Flicker in Time: all life-preserving magic suffers a hiccup. It wasn't much, just a moment's inattention by Mystra. Everyone who has lived beyond the normal span of human years instantly feels the effect of their aging. Liches explode, Elminster, Arunsun, and the rest just collapse (and death by natural aging can't be solved by resurrection). Doesn't solve Do'Urden, though.

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Emerging Evil: This is my favorite. Thayans have just plain been lame -- an evil empire that always loses? BAH! And the Zhents -- they get schooled by the forces of good at every turn. BAH! Right. So, this time they win, and win big. The Simbul is assassinated and her soul captured by Sszas Tam and the Thayans. Elminster and Arunsun attempt a rescue (it's a trap, Luke!) and (for *once*) aren't saved by ridiculous diety bias. Their captured souls are destroyed in a titanic Wasting Curse that follows the ley lines that connect people: the friends of these three slowly and irrevocably begin to sicken and die.

Maybe the characters have a slight case of the Wasting Curse, enough to incentivise them to get it stopped. But not before the cosy cabal has passed beyond. Tragic, really.

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You get the point. A world-shattering cataclysm won't kill off the DMPCs, but, conversely, other events could target them more narrowly. Good luck.

best,

Carpe

 

[Altalazar]

If your goal is to kill off Faerun's rampant DMPCs, why not just kill them off? Seriously, how many get heavy play? They don't even have to die from the same cause.

If you want a system-wide cause, again, it seems to me you have better ways to kill DMPCs than ending the world. (By the way: the Faerun DMPCs are by far the best equipped to *survive* worldwide devastation, so it's not clear you're picking anything up in terms of versimilitude by invoking a devastation.)
Carpe

Very good point. Worldwide devestation would likely kill all the weak and leave ONLY Uber-heroes left standing - kinda the opposite effect one would want, if your goal was killing them all.

If you are going to be heavy handed, just be heavy handed. Make all NPCs above level 10 and NOT of evil alignment disappear. No explanation. Leave it a big mystery. Meanwhile, there is chaos as evil takes over everywhere, with nothing to stop it. When the dust settles, the PCs will REALLY need to be heroes just to survive.

Of course, you've completely changed the FR at that point - so much so that one wonders why not just change it by saying they never existed there in the first place (all those over level 10 good NPCs)? Either way, you are making a massive change to the world.

Now me, I think it doesn't much matter either way. I mean, you don't see people not wanting to get into the computer business because there's a Bill Gates - so why would the existence of NPC heroes stop PC heroes?

 

[GrayIguana]

Emerging Evil: This is my favorite. Thayans have just plain been lame -- an evil empire that always loses? BAH! And the Zhents -- they get schooled by the forces of good at every turn. BAH! Right. So, this time they win, and win big. The Simbul is assassinated and her soul captured by Sszas Tam and the Thayans. Elminster and Arunsun attempt a rescue (it's a trap, Luke!) and (for *once*) aren't saved by ridiculous diety bias.
Carpe

I've always liked this idea, and wanted to play a campaign bases around this idea. The PCs could even play agents of the various evil organizations. In my mind, the organizations have had enough of losing all the time, so they band together. The PCs play a type of evil UN special ops squad with most evil factions represented. They then run missions to collect powerful items, assassinate good NPCs, and ultimately help remove the iconics from the world.

But my group prefers to play good-oriented characters, and I've got more interesting campaign ideas that I'd like to follow first.

 

[was]

Kezef the Chaos Hound is also known as Ravager of the Heavens. He lives to spread chaos, and was at some point imprisoned in Pandemonium by the collective efforts of FR deities (good and evil). At some point, he bit off Tyr's hand, broke free, ran amok in Cyric's Bone Castle, and chased Mask. It appears as if he has been somehow subdued again, because 3E makes no mention of him. Yet.

Ityak-Ortheel, the Elf Eater, is Malar's "pet." It is a killing machine that lives in the Abyss and is only brought fourth by Malar's whims. It particularly enjoys eating elves (because he only derives sustenance from elven spirits), hence the name.

All three Eternal Evils are Entities that rival the power of gods. They cannot be destroyed, although they can be hurt and forced to flee (if sufficiently wounded). Their stats appeared in 2nd edition Powers and Pantheons.

-If I remember correctly from the books, Tyr put his hand in Kezef's mouth and it was bitten off when the gods broke their word and bound him. He was freed by Cyric, but captured by Mask in a candle. He later was freed in the city of the dead helping Kelemvor defeat Cyric and become God of the Dead. He is now trying to kill Mask for imprisoning and using him. He did bite off Mask's leg, but he got away. Kezef is currently unable to find Mask because he got a hound-slaying magical sword from Mystra.
-However, the problem with Kezef (despite his skin looking like a swarm of maggots) is that he devours the souls of the faithful who have already passed onto the planes. I don't know think he is interested in the living as their souls aren't 'ripe' yet.
-Ityak-Ortheel only eats elves. It has ignored humans. I also believe that it was destroyed, or is fighting an avatar of Angarradh on the planes at the moment.
I do, however really like your suggestion of using Dendar. I remember the various 2nd ed. modules where the mindflayers were trying to extinguish the sun. Imagine mind-flayers rising up out of Skullport and replacing the lords of Waterdeep, enslaving the entire populace...ahh, good stuff!
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[VirgilCaine]

it would depend how far you want to take the kaiju/godzilla bit.

"Right now I'm saying a prayer for the whole world."

BWAHAAHH!
DIE evil uber-NPCS!

 

[DMH]

Will it get rid of the really power NPC's? Well, maybe in the short term. But unless it disrupts spells that bring back the dead, they'll be back. That's the advantage of having friends who are also high powered. If it does disrupt spells that bring back the dead, then the PC's will have to be very careful.

I agree with him. But instead of kaiju, try ethergaunts. They have brains, magic and a dislike for divine magic. They may be able to cut off the gods' contact with their clergy. Create (or find) classes and PrCs that allow them to convert some of their spells into supernatural effects- maybe the Adept of the Awakened Eye from AEG's magic? Give them powerful slaves- illithids, mindshredders, maugs, neogi, umber hulks, or all of them. And most of all, give them unique magic spells and items- so alien that humans have trouble using it. Maybe you want to try using the sanity rules from CoC and drive the common populace insane.

 

[Sejs]

which is going to launch the rocks from Selune's Tears onto Toril.

Oh I like this.

One by one, causing Selune's Tears to fall as they trail their way across Faerun...

 

[Testament]

I just like the idea of Szass Tam winning for once. I could never work out how a guy that smart, and with that many powerful minions so terrified of him could ever possibly lose?

And as others have pointed out, the Seven Sisters and their ilk are busy fighting the Phaerimms and the Shades, and Elminster is still AWOL. Now is the time for the High Zulkir and the Zhentarim to make their move. THAYAN DESPOTISM FOR EVERYONE! MWAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Cheiromancer]

Their captured souls are destroyed in a titanic Wasting Curse that follows the ley lines that connect people: the friends of these three slowly and irrevocably begin to sicken and die.

I like this one. There is even a precedent in the BoVD; a corrupt 3rd level spell called "Love's Pain". It deals 1d6/2 levels to the subject's dearest loved one.