EPIC: Attacking Asmodeus

[Matafuego]

Hello Everybody:

After some talking with my players, some good advices in these forums (thanks a lot!) and some decisions taken by myself... The Epic PC's have decided to attack Asmodeus and steal him the soul of a recently slayed Lawful Good Major Deity so they can ressurect him. (That's the background)

Of course... IMC Asmodeus is a Deity and way out of the reach of my Epic players machinations.. and they very much know this.. SO.. they were wondering and asking themselves who to turn to before attacking him in his home land, allies, friends, and pretty much every known outsider, be it for distractions and direct or indirect help.

My Diabolic head though of one more ally they may have missed... Levistus. Frozen in his plane... until someone frees him from his imprisonment. And it so happens the players CAN do it (one of the players is some kind of defender of the Plane of Fire).
Of course while trying to do it they will know the power of Asmodeus trying to prevent them, but I think they can handle a non direct attack from him.

Thing is, of course, party is Good, with capital G, and with a Paladin (who can not associate with Evil beings, though its his god he's trying to ressurect so there may be some code violations in the meanwhile I suppose) and a Neutral Good Saint, an Exalted character (Book of Exalted Deeds).
Not knowing much from Levistus and Asmodeus than what the BoVD says...

The thing is: I want your opinions!
Can this be done?
Supposing the PCs free Levistus and have some plan for attacking Asmodeus, I would think Levistus would pair with them... at least for this fight...
Would there be Alignment problems? (I can see that happen)
Would there be Code Violations? (of course!)
Would there be repercusions?
What if they manage to steal the soul back and ressurrect a Major Good good?

Remember, the PCs don't need to defeat Asmodeus, just steal something very precious from him and not confront him directly at full strength (otherwise TPK and they KNOW this).
Of course I won't force my players into this idea but i think they will come up with it pretty fast (one of the players is DMing a campaign whose purpose is "conquering hell" and he also owns the BoVD so it won't be long before he realises these two have issues and they can empower those issues by freeing him)

Thanks a lot!

Any other suggestion is greatly appreciated.

(This battle and planning is supposed to take place in November so there's still some time for them to prepare and for me to plan everything).

Lucas

 

[Turanil]

The thing is: I want your opinions!
Can this be done?

I like this idea. I would say: go for it. PCs won't violate their alignment as long as the deal is extremely clear: they release Levistus and give him an help to take the position of Asmodeus, gaining in exchange his help to free the divine soul. Now, have Levistus ask the PCs agree to other things that would put their alignment into Jeopardy. If the PCs reject these additional things, Levistus will nonetheless help them, as he really wants to be freed and take revenge on Asmodeus.

 

[RisnDevil]

I think it is a great idea, and can be done, but one thing needs to be pointed out. By your origional post, one (maybe two, not sure about the saint and the exalted being one and the same or different people) of your party members have a rp choice. Unlike the paladin, they are the epitome of righteousness and goodness, and as such, will either find another way or willingly sacrifice their exalted status to free Levistus. They just can't do it and keep their status. Freeing a MAJOR demon lord, regardless of why, is a no-no (unless they plan to sanctify him using the rules in the BoED). Forget freeing him, they couldn't even willingly work with him.

Regardless of the outcome, even resurrecting the major good god, they made a boo-boo. The ball should be in the player's court though.

 

[DaveMage]

If you also play with the "Blood War" concept, I'd expect there are a number of demon lords that would be more than happy to aid the PCs....and betray them at the last moment, of course.

 

[Rhun]

Remember, the PCs don't need to defeat Asmodeus, just steal something very precious from him and not confront him directly at full strength (otherwise TPK and they KNOW this).

Reminds me of the old Throne of Bloodstone adventure. Sneak into Orcus' citadel and steal the Wand of Orcus out from under him. Ah, that adventure was a meatgrinder. Never did have a group of players make it through.

 

[Vorput]

Sepluchures (spelling butchered) Tales of the Wyre story hour had something like this.

The Paladin eventually ended up working with demons and devils to take down a much more powerful demon... his moral dilemnas and ultimate decisions are detailed there.

One option is to free a God and bring down Asmodeus (throwing the abyss into.... umm.... chaos I guess for awhile), and put Levistus in his place. Arguably, Levistus isn't any worse than Asmodeus and you get a good god out of the deal. The other option is don't free the God, and let Asmodeus continue to rule...

I say they should go for it, strange times make for unlikely bedfellows... Ultimatly, its up to the dieties who support the characters. Characters of this level probably have the means to walk into their inner courts and (reverently) ask their opinions. And since the DM controls the Gods... it's up to you and the cosmology you've created.

Vorp

 

[Shemeska]

Depends on how you handle the whole 'Exalted' thing. As depicted in the BoED it was incredibly shallow and one-dimensional. Universal Good would be hamstrung half the time by using that book's concept of Exalted as the shining example of absolute Good. The other half of the time universal Good would be corrupted all to heck by the BoED's take on Good pretty much getting to do horrible things that are perfectly ok because of intent and doing them to evil beings (ie forced conversion of alignment, 'good' poisons, etc).

If they're willing to free Levistus, knowing that his release will turn Baator into a cesspool of civil war, essentially causing lawful evil to feast upon itself, go for it.

If they want to go further, get some of the other fiends in on it (ie from the Abyss, or if they want help with a side of backstabbing go for the 'loths) or get the aid of various celestials who are willing to buck the trend of noninvolvement that each of the major celestial races have with regards to the politics of the fiends.

You've got a pair of axis you can work with here, both people opposed to the E side of LE, and those opposed to the L side of LE. People tend to restrict themselves to just looking at the E part of it too often, but there are powers that very much hate Baator and its rulers just on the L part of that alone.

 

[Starman]

Sepluchures (spelling butchered) Tales of the Wyre story hour had something like this.

I was also going to suggest Sepulchrave's () story hour as perfect inspiration for this kind of game. The player's struggle against Graz'zt is nothing short of spectacular.