Help needed with my near epic level campaign (My players, stay out!)

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Subtlety is key

Lordnightshade, I think subtlety is the key to this thing working the best.

Decor: Let the outer portions of the place look (at first glance) like the ideal Love goddess' palace. Tasteful, ornate, lots of flowers, etc. But when someone picks up a rose, the center of it is rotten and has nasty little worms in it. There might be a tapestry of two people making love, but when you look closer, the woman is tied down like Gulliver with hundreds of tiny, tiny cords, and in the man's hand, barely noticeable because of the position, is a whip or a knife. Perhaps there's a faint sneer on his face. You don't even notice it at first, but it's there. The obviously perverse things aren't visible until you get deeper inside the palace.

The succubi: Even more than your average succubus, they look like normal, albeit beautiful, women. Little things give them away. When one of them blinks, you notice that she has lizard-like eyes. When one smiles, you can see her unusually sharp eye-teeth. That one over there has little horns that barely poke out of her hair. They seem incredibly sweet and nice, but a Sense Motive check or something allows you to detect a strange hunger in their eyes, or something.

The temptations: The succubus tempters don't make any individual suggestion to a mortal in the crystals seem over the top. Instead, they make little suggestions, each one leading to only a slight change in circumstances. But the cumulative effect takes a normal situation, and makes it vile. Perhaps you could let them find a succubus' "tempting journal," something along the lines of "The Screwtape Letters." It could show a log of a succubus' success in transforming someone, over time, into a monster. Just little suggestions each time. The mortal might even have remorse periodically, but the succubus just backs off a little and helps the mortal rationalize until the remorse goes away. Baby steps that take a virtuous person, and corrupt them absolutely. That would be a LOT of preparation, but it will make it especially hard on the PCs when they encounter the mirrors. They've already seen how little, subtle changes can effect a person. It will make the images they see in the mirrors seem that much more possible, and therefore more disturbing. "Am I so very close to becoming that?"

Subtle mindgames are ultimately more effective. Completely off-the-wall is easy to disbelieve and rationalize. "I'm being controlled against my will." etc. Subtle makes it seem like the character came to the situation without outside interference.

 

[Lordnightshade]

I really like the way you think Canis... Here is what I have so far not all of this will be seen by the PCs and perhaps with a little work this can be made more subtle. Anything you can offer to better this description would be great!

Draft of Anomaly's Palace:
Warning, explicit content!

ANOMALY’S PALACE, is built upon a large floating island above the Orgasmic Sea. Waterfalls form brilliant rainbows as they cascade off the island to splash upon the writhing masses far below. Giant palms and fields of flowers surround the palace which appears to be made entirely of some emerald green metal banded and ornamented by large bands of silver and gold. Its towers and domes gleam invitingly.

Through the fields of flowers are random paths of round coble stones that wind and twist seemingly going nowhere in particular. Gentle streams flow out towards the edge of the island to cascade down into the Orgasmic Sea. Small groups of fiends stroll amongst the flowers.

Down one of the paths approaches an exceptionally beautiful succubus. She is dressed in tight black leather straps that really conceal nothing yet accentuate everything. Attached to a chain leash she is leading a tall muscular man with brilliant white feathered wings, he is wearing nothing but a loin cloth and has a large smile upon his face. He looks upon her with absolute adoration as she leads him along. (I figure the Greater Succubus leading the Solar by a chain leash will get some sort of reaction out of the PCs. If they try to attack her they will have to deal with the Solar who is her eternal love slave.)

The gates of the Palace stand open and there is a steady flow of traffic in and out, inside screams can be heard and it is not clear if they are screams of pleasure or pain, everywhere the stench of sex is strong.

The great hall is cool and shadowy and seems to have countless alcoves and areas piled about with pillows. The screams heard before come from one of these shadowy recesses. A bronze skinned man with angelic wings is ferociously lashing a succubus with a short leather whip. Her wrists and ankles are chained to the inside of the alcove and she is screaming as he lashes her but her screams are not screams of pain but rather she keeps asking him if he likes it, and to hit her harder to make her hurt and doesn’t it feel good to beat her.

This great hall is the Hall of Angels. It is a place where Celestials are corrupted and their angelic souls are forever captured and enslaved.

Beyond the Hall of Angels, within the great central dome is the Chamber of Corruption. This is the most important place in Anomaly’s palace; it is where she gathers her souls, and where she corrupts mortals from many different prime worlds.

The dome is full of thousands of crystals of every imaginable shape and size from giant crystal shards to huge orbs to crystal balls to small faceted clear crystals. In front of each crystal are a succubus or an incubus and their whispers fill the domed chamber with a soft cacophony that is somehow soothing and unsettling at the same time. Within each crystal is a scene, each scene is different.

In the large crystal orb closest you can see several succubi standing around watching with smiles upon their faces, they seem very intent on what is happening inside the orb. A blond haired succubus is concentrating intently and whispering softly to the orb. The scene is of two supposed lovers chasing each other through a field of wild flowers laughing happily. The man catches the girl and together they collapse in the flowers giggling and begin kissing each other passionately. The scene is beautiful and full of joy and young love, it is the picture of perfect love. The succubus whispers “She has denied you every time before, this time you should assert yourself.” The man continues kissing the girl, moving down to her neck, “That’s it!” the succubus whispers. The mans hands slide up under the girls white dress and she grabs his hand “Ok stop,” she says. The succubus whispers “She really means keep going, she really wants you, she doesn’t want you to stop, be aggressive! Girls like that!” He forces his hand up her skirt, and she screams what the succubus is whispering now is drowned out by the girls scream but the man persists, he tears her clothes off and begins to brutally rape her. The succubi watching the scene applaud and one of them says “That one took you long enough Drucilla!” The blond succubus turns smiling and says “He was a hard one, so honorable and good at first! You just have to know what buttons to push!”

Nearby in a smaller crystal shard you can see the image of a young woman wearing tattered rags, she is crying as she holds an infant in her arms, a succubus is whispering to her. “It would be merciful to end this misery you have brought him into, be strong and do it, imagine how much easier life would be for you without him slowing you down!”

Other Crystal images that could be witnessed:
Fostering mistrust between married couples, with the ultimate goal of driving one of them to kill the other (or the person they've been duped into believing had cuckolded them) out of jealousy.

Convincing a man that the only way to bring his slightly wayward son around was through beatings, beatings which have gotten EXTREMELY severe and now come with only the slightest provocation.

Feeding the depression and desperation of a poor, single mother until she's convinced that it's the right thing to drown her own child rather than let it live under the conditions they have.

They would probably also encourage things like incest. Maybe a pair of succubi (or a succubus and an incubus) working together: one whispering in a man's ear and the other whispering in his sister's, trying to break the taboo from both ends and net a pair of souls. Alternatively, you could approach it as the scrying device shows a couple finishing off what appears to be normal consensual intercourse, but once the PCs see them both clearly, it's obvious that they are brother and sister (or at least very closely related). A succubus would be saying in one of their minds, "There now, did that feel wrong to you?" or something to that effect.

The Mirrors:
All through the palace are mirrors of different shapes and sizes, yet they all share one thing in common. Looking into these mirrors you will see a reflection of your repressed desires, your dark side, you will see things that you want but didn’t even know you wanted. The images will bring great pleasure to the viewer and a deep level of self discovery, if viewed for at least 10 minutes the viewer will gain a +2 bonus to all of their rolls for 24 hours.

Should someone destroy a mirror they release their dark side and must confront it physically as the Shadow Twin spell from Relics and Rituals.

 

[Lordnightshade]

hmmm I also like the idea that many of the palace guard are corrupted angels, solar and planetar... They are so much more capable of dishing out hurt on PCs than any Demon, should it come to that.