How to kill eight gods? (seeking help towards epic campaign ending)

[Jack99]

EDIT: This starts well.. It should be nine gods (in the title).. Posting after 1 AM sucks.

Bønne, Bedet, BC, Jensen, Molin, Manne og Schyts – Stay out

Okay, so I have this 4e campaign that’s been running since June. They are going to ding level 9 tomorrow, but since I am prepared for what happens the next 3-4 levels, I am starting to look at the endgame.

Before I can explain what kind of help I need, I will have to explain the setting, and what has happened so far.

[sblock=The premise of the setting]25 years ago, about 100.000 people fled a dying world, where the dead wouldn’t die, to a world called Draegor, through some portals. They started as one city-state, but have since fragmented into three distinct city-states.

They worship the PHB gods, and races/classes are straight out of the PHB.

The players’ characters all hail from the largest city, called Drahar.

Both Drahar and the other cities have focused on settling in, rebuilding, on isolationism, since they arrived. Thus hardly anything is known of the world they now inhabit. There has been no contact with civilized races yet. Only skirmishes with barbarian orcs and the like.

Unbeknownst to the heroes (to anyone actually) the new world suffered not so long ago. When Bael Turath exploded, not only did parts of the world end up under water, but the magical explosion also ripped holes to the Feywild, causing fey energy to pour out into the world, making forests, swamps and everything grow at an extreme rate, creating a de facto PoL world. Plenty of big cities around, but they are/have been cut off from each other – to a certain degree.[/sblock]
[sblock=Status, or what has happened so far – the really, short version]The heroes are hired by a merchant, Mr. Jacoby, to bring a message to his old elven semi-hermit friend, who lives a day or so of travel to the south. During their first night out in the wilds, they get captured by kobolds. They escape the kobolds, and head back towards Drahar, to complete their mission.

They stumble over an old dwarven ruin, and learn that this area was once part of a dwarven empire (also of a hobgoblin empire, earlier on). They also learn that there are several other ruins/castles/holds within a few days travel. Danar Hold and Castle Whiterock (yeah yeah, more on that later)

They head down the elven friend, only to learn that he knows nothing of this Mr. Jacoby. Heading back to Drahar, they find Mr. Jacoby, but he escapes them. Papers found in his shop seem to indicate that he might be part of a slave-organization.

The heroes decide that since they can’t find Mr. Jacoby, nor have any other leads towards this slave-organization, they will find and explore Danar Hold.

Danar hold is KotS, slightly changed.

They head out to Danar Hold, and meet a lot of goblins, kobolds and hobgoblins. They find evidence of an alliance between the kobolds, hobgoblins, and some Monks of the Iron Fist at Castle Whiterock, as well as a group called the Blood Reavers, whereabouts unknown. It seems that the kobolds and hobgoblins sell slaves to the Monks and the Reavers. Except that it also becomes clear that Kalarel, the Orcus priest that “runs” Danar Hold, also needs slaves, so the kobolds also sell to him, slaves which are provided by Mr. Jacoby and a gang of thieves from Drahar, called the Dark Finders.

Anyway, at the end, the heroes confront Kalarel, who is trying to open a portal to the Shadowfell. They kill Kalarel, but fail closing the portal. And something comes through (not while the heroes are there though, but they do know something came through).

But no, it’s not a scion of Orcus. It’s the aspect of Yeenoghu, who had been trapped in the Shadowfell by – well someone. At this point I am not quite sure who or what.

After Danar Hold, the heroes return to Drahar, where they soon find themselves engaged in a small back-alley-war against the Dark Finders and Mr. Jacoby, who have found out that the heroes are behind killing their kobold and hobgoblin allies, as well as Kalarel, a close and personal friend of the leader of the Dark Finders, a dwarf warlock called Durnam Ironfoot.

After cleaning up in Drahar, they head out to nearby swamp. Intel gathered from the Dark Finders indicate that the captain of the guard in Drahar is controlled by Durnam Ironfoot via three witches that live in the swamp.
Out in the swamp, they befriend a tribe of lizardmen that also have trouble with the witches, before they find the witches in an old evil church. They defeat the witches, and return to Drahar, having a new ally in the captain of the guard, although he never admits anything.

Talking about their adventure in their favorite tavern, they meet Zeke, a halfelven wizard with interest in such things. Soon they are heading back to the church, with Zeke in tow. Together, they find the tomb of someone called Zorich, an Exarch of the Keeper, which from what they gather, must be a local evil god.

But before they can do anything, the church and Zeke vanishes into the Feywild, and doesn’t return.

The heroes go back to Drahar, and finally close the book by hunting down Durnam, and bringing him to justice.

With little more to do in Drahar, the heroes decide to check out Castle Whiterock. On the way through the jungle, they stumble over an elven village that has been sacked. The only survivor, an elven kid, speaks of gnolls led by a large white gnoll, committing atrocities, sacrificing most of the village.

This is of course the aspect of Yeenoghu.

They follow the tracks of the gnolls, which go in the direction of Castle Whiterock. However, just before arriving there, the tracks turn into the mountains. The heroes follow them inside, but lose them in a veritable labyrinth of tunnels. They take a wrong turn or three, and end up running into some drows heading to the Seven Pillared Hall. They are captured (the elven boy dies) and tortured, then sold as slaves in the Seven Pillared Hall.

Sold as slaves to the Arena Master.

After participating in tournament, winning seven battles, they are granted their freedom, and find themselves in the Seven Pillared Hall (from Thunderspire Labyrinth). Here they realize that most other people are natives to this world, and learn quite a bit about it.

One of the most important things they learn, is that there are 9 gods in this world, and none of them are the same as the ones they worship. The gods people worship in Drahar (PHB gods) are merely exarches in this world, at least in the eyes of the natives.

Anyway, back on track, they head back out to Castle Whiterock, where they find that the Monks of the Iron Fist are nothing more than even more slavers. After dispatching them, they head back to SPH in order to find the Bloodreavers, last on their list of evil slavers to get rid of.

After doing that, they find information leading them to the Horned Hold (with all the Duergar) and from there to the Well of Demons and the demonic gnolls.
In between the Horned Hold and the Well of Demons, they returned home, to tell the Church of Kord and the Council of Drahar about all the information about the new world they have gathered, for which they are rewarded a title and some land.

This is basically where we are at. They have started tackling the Well of Demons. At the end, they will catch a glimpse of the aspect of Yeenoghu, but that’s merely a teaser for later on.

After dealing with Paldemar (end of Thunderspire Labyrinth) they will head back to Drahar. There, after some fun with their new land and titles, the Church of Kord will ask them to find Zeke, or at least find out what happened, since while the heroes have been gone, the evil church from the swamp has returned, but the tomb is empty, and Zeke is nowhere to be found. They fear the worst.

The heroes will find their way into the Feywild where a troll chieftain has acquired some artifacts by surprising Zeke after he had handled the arcane traps and protections of the tomb. The troll has crowned himself king, and plan to gather an army and take on the humans living on his ancestral lands. But first, he needs to invade an eladrin town in the Feywild, since it holds the only semi permanent portal to the real world that the trollking knows of. This is of course P1, modified to some degree. [/sblock]
[sblock=What else will happen in the near future?]After saving Drahar etc from the trollking, I am not sure. They should be around level 13 or so at that point. I know that I want whatever happens to lead up to a confrontation around level 20 (ideally), where the heroes battle the aspect of Yeenoghu.

Since the fall of Nerath was not so long ago in this world (around 30-50 years ago) a good deal of the gnoll hordes might still be around. And since Nerath (or rather, that area) is not too far to the south, maybe the aspect is heading there to assemble the horde once again? Or maybe it should something totally different. I am undecided on the subject at the present time.[/sblock]

Basically, this was the idea from the beginning, but I never really got around developing it. But since foreshadowing is awesome, I thought it better to start working a bit more on it now.

[sblock=The epic ending! Killing the gods… or not.]The idea is to have the campaign last all the way to the end of the epic tier. It should end with the players either killing the native gods, causing their exarchs to be promoted to god status (ie, so that this world uses the PHB gods). Now, I never imagined the players hoping around from Astral Dominion to Astral Dominion, slaying one god after the other. However, I am not quite sure how it should happen either. [/sblock]

[sblock=Summary of what I need help for]Ideas to what the aspect of Yeenoghu would do, if stranded on the prime material plane.

Ideas to the who’s and why’s of his imprisonment in the Shadowfell.

Help figuring out how the players can help topple the current pantheon, making the current exarches the new gods. It does not have to be one final combat, hell it doesn’t necessarily need to be resolved via combat. Although, I must admit that I do not see them travelling around convincing everyone in the new world to reject the old gods. I have very little experience with truly epic play, so I am drawing a few blanks here atm.

Kord and his Church should have a prominent role, as the group has a cleric of Kord, as well as two other characters multiclassed cleric, both worshipping Kord.

The wizard (who is multiclass cleric) is aiming for the divine oracle paragon path, which I want to take full advantage of.[/sblock]

Thanks in advance

Cheers

 

[ppaladin123]

Have you ever played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain? The villain of that game, "the unspoken," defeated the Circle of Nine (defenders of the realm) by killing Ariel, one of the 9, and keeper of balance. Without the "god" of balance to maintain order, everything quickly fell apart. Her lover, the "god" of science, magic, knowledge, etc. went mad from grief. In his demented state, all wizards and magic users, including the other gods, were infected with his insanity and turned on each other. The defender of nature started twisting/mutating the creatures of the world; the defender of the time stream began to rewrite history into an unstable pattern, etc. The world fell into chaos and the 9 turned on each other. In this fragmented, insane state, the "hero" of the game is easily able to slay the remaining, weakened gods and set himself up as ruler of the world.

I guess my point is that the pantheon may collapse into chaos/infighting upon the death or incapacitation of merely one of its members. The removal of the lynch pin god(dess) may allow the exarchs to usurp power. The gods may kill each other for you...or end up too weak to defend themselves from the exarchs. Players may not have to go on an astral killing spree to enact change.

So...kill the god of magic or mind. Kill or kidnap the lover of an unstable god. Find and steal (or destroy) their divine power source. Frame one god for the death of another. Sow chaos and discord and watch the house of cards crumble.

 

[fba827]

I don't have much experience in epic play either, so I don't know how well such things would ultimately play out in feel/tone. But in general, (in my own personal belief) a fight with gods should include either an artifact or a very powerful ritual, or both (an artifact and a powerful ritual).

So perhaps they have to find an artifact in one of the ruins. The artifact should be a standard action to activate and have a range of 1 (you'll have to come up with the attack value, vs will). The artifact could either trap the god, or it could strip them of their divinity, making them simply powerful (lvl 30) mortals.

Or perhaps finding a 30th level ritual scroll that creates a zone that weakens dieites to mortal status when fought on the zone (though it would be difficult to get a god to stay in such a zone).... so perhaps the ritual could simply be used as a key to activate the artifact (see above)..

thus those two things would give them two things to quest for in the various ruins. and the wizard could forsee some of this in a prophetic vision of sorts.


As far as Yeenoghu, i don't know much about him, but if I recall, he's all about carnage and choas with gnolls... right? so perhaps (using his strength to dominate) he makes himself head of severa tribes of gnolls, organizing them to a massive army, taking over city after city in a trail of carnage. Alternatively, if he's acting alone, then he could be doing all the carnage on his own. But, again, I don't know much about Yeenoghu.

 

[mr_outsidevoice]

Ideas to what the aspect of Yeenoghu would do, if stranded on the prime material plane.

Ideas to the who’s and why’s of his imprisonment in the Shadowfell.

Well, one or more of the current gods could have imprisoned the aspect, locking out Yeenoghu's influence. Y could seek revenge. Perhaps even focusing all his destructive vengeance upon the major focuses of Worship for the native gods.

Help figuring out how the players can help topple the current pantheon, making the current exarches the new gods. It does not have to be one final combat, hell it doesn’t necessarily need to be resolved via combat. Although, I must admit that I do not see them travelling around convincing everyone in the new world to reject the old gods. I have very little experience with truly epic play, so I am drawing a few blanks here atm.

So am I to assume ALL PHB gods are along for the ride? Well then, Asmodeus is there, along with Bane and Vecna, and know that the current gods have to go. Asmodeus discovered the imprisoned Yeenoghu, and arranged for the Demon Lord's escape. Perhaps a devil is hanging around, guiding the Aspect to hit certain targets.

Now if the resident gods are destroyed before the newcomers get a certain amount of worship, the world will be destroyed. Asmodeus realizes that, and arranges things so that Kord gets involved to save the day.

Now by the time players stop Y, the end of the resident gods has begun, but they won't go quietly. The old pantheon might realize that Y's rampage was guided by the newcomers, and will seek to eliminate the newcomer's followers.

The Players will have to defend their people, stop the old gods, and discover and stop Asmodeus from assuming the role of sole diety.

 

[Jack99]

Have you ever played Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain? The villain of that game, "the unspoken," defeated the Circle of Nine (defenders of the realm) by killing Ariel, one of the 9, and keeper of balance. Without the "god" of balance to maintain order, everything quickly fell apart. Her lover, the "god" of science, magic, knowledge, etc. went mad from grief. In his demented state, all wizards and magic users, including the other gods, were infected with his insanity and turned on each other. The defender of nature started twisting/mutating the creatures of the world; the defender of the time stream began to rewrite history into an unstable pattern, etc. The world fell into chaos and the 9 turned on each other. In this fragmented, insane state, the "hero" of the game is easily able to slay the remaining, weakened gods and set himself up as ruler of the world.

I have never had the pleasure of playing that game, but the idea sounds intriguing. Definitely worth considering.

I don't have much experience in epic play either, so I don't know how well such things would ultimately play out in feel/tone. But in general, (in my own personal belief) a fight with gods should include either an artifact or a very powerful ritual, or both (an artifact and a powerful ritual).

Yep, that's probably a given, that some sort of artifact or really obscure ritual will be involved.

As far as Yeenoghu, i don't know much about him, but if I recall, he's all about carnage and choas with gnolls... right? so perhaps (using his strength to dominate) he makes himself head of severa tribes of gnolls, organizing them to a massive army, taking over city after city in a trail of carnage. Alternatively, if he's acting alone, then he could be doing all the carnage on his own. But, again, I don't know much about Yeenoghu.

Yeah, he likes carnage and hates minotaurs. I just think there should be more to it.

Well, one or more of the current gods could have imprisoned the aspect, locking out Yeenoghu's influence. Y could seek revenge. Perhaps even focusing all his destructive vengeance upon the major focuses of Worship for the native gods.

Interesting idea.

So am I to assume ALL PHB gods are along for the ride? Well then, Asmodeus is there, along with Bane and Vecna, and know that the current gods have to go. Asmodeus discovered the imprisoned Yeenoghu, and arranged for the Demon Lord's escape. Perhaps a devil is hanging around, guiding the Aspect to hit certain targets.

Now if the resident gods are destroyed before the newcomers get a certain amount of worship, the world will be destroyed. Asmodeus realizes that, and arranges things so that Kord gets involved to save the day.

Now by the time players stop Y, the end of the resident gods has begun, but they won't go quietly. The old pantheon might realize that Y's rampage was guided by the newcomers, and will seek to eliminate the newcomer's followers.

The Players will have to defend their people, stop the old gods, and discover and stop Asmodeus from assuming the role of sole diety.

I like this too.

Great suggestions so far, I hope there are more to come. I guess I am also looking for motivation to take on such a monumental task, aside from self-preservation, that is is a bit too cliché, I think.

 

[Silver Moon]

Killing a god is a nearly impossible task for mortals. Killing multiple gods is easy - you just have to create the circumstances to pit them against each other and let them do the killing.

I once did a module similar to PPaladin123's point - figure out which god is the lynchpin and focus on that god's removal.

 

[Jack99]

I once did a module similar to PPaladin123's point - figure out which god is the lynchpin and focus on that god's removal.

Like I said when Ppaladin mentioned it, it sounds interesting. Any chance you could elaborate on what happened, and how you did it?

 

[Ydars]

Jack99; your problem is that you need an engaging creation story that rationalises the nature of godhood. In other words, you need to define what a God actually is through story and how the world came to be the way it did. Otherwise, Gods are just another monster and have no true majesty. Here is an example but it is just one example. I hope it helps.

At the beginning of your world, the Nine True Gods first created the Cardinal plane; a region of the world that would overlap with, but be unreachable from, the normal world. They then created a portal to the Celestial Plane that would allow a divine River of Infinity to enter the Cardinal Plane and give them the power to shape the world. This River of Infinity runs through the Cardinal Plane and bathes the Nine Shrines of the Divine Aspects. At each shrine is a font that has one of the symbols of the Nine True Gods set into it. The River of Infinity literally channels sublime power into the world and lends it to the Gods through the shrines. The shrine is the place where each God stood at the Dawn of Time and called into being, the World that Is, shaping it to their will. Without the River, the True Gods have much less power because they have sunk so much of themselves into creating the shrines.

In your world, the authentic symbols of the Nine True Gods have been replaced by the Nine Wards of the Usurpers; Nine Gods that have no right to be called divine. These creatures are using the borrowed might of the True Gods, channelled through the shrines via the River of Infinity and stolen using their corrupted wards, to purloin majesty and dominion over this world. They have sealed the True Gods out of the Cardinal Plane and the Nine True Gods are now a shadow of their former selves without the power gifted to them by the Shrines. They are also forbidden to directly harm mortals in the mortal realm and hence must work through mortals; the PCs.

These Usurpers cannot leave the Cardinal Plane now, because then the True Gods might take up their powers again, so they have summoned the Aspect of Yeenoghu to be their servant and slay the PCs, who are destined to defeat them and restore the Nine True Gods (if they live). The Usurpers

So I would have your PCs find out more and more about your creation myth, fight the Aspect of the demon and learn of its hatred for them and then eventually hear of a way onto the Cardinal plane, perhaps discover artefacts needed to destroy the Usurpers etc. The PCs must then interrupt the flow of Celestial Power by closing the portal to the Celestial Plane and shutting off the flow of the River of Infinity (plunging your world into chaos) to deny the Usurpers their access to divine power. They must then slay the Usurpers, who are now no more than very powerful monsters (this might need an artefact) and then discover a way to restore the River/portal. This must all be done within a short space of time or else the world will be destroyed by being cut-off from the Divine power. Once this is done, it will restore the True Gods to their rightful place in the world and will also banish the PCs from the Cardinal Plane.

 

[Jack99]

Thanks Ydar, that was also a very helpful post.

How about this idea? (based on the suggestions in the thread so far)
In the beginning of times, the 9 gods of creation make the world. Somewhere in between the Prime material plane and the Astral Dominion, these 9 gods create a divine focus for their power, and using said focus, they shape the world, as it is.

Time passes, and over time, something causes the ancient gods to become inattentive, lax, or to simply no longer care for the world. Maybe their attention is drawn towards something else.

At this point, man, elf and other humanoid races are numerous, but live primitive lives.

Then an interplanetary race of brain-eaters find their way to the world, quickly taking it over, expanding their already plane-spanning empire.
After years of misery, slavery etc, the humanoid races are just about completely broken. Their ancient gods seem to have left them, and without their help, there is little the races can do against the might of the mindflayers.

Then, during man’s darkest hour, the gods return, along with the fabled dragons! Together they battle the mindflayer empire, causing man (and elf etc) to rise up and fight with them. But these are not the ancient gods, but instead usurper gods who have trapped the weakened ancient gods somewhere, and stolen their symbols.

The Usurper gods and dragons win, the mindflayers flee either to other planes, or deep deep undercover… err underground.

Time passes, empires rise and fall, and the new gods cement their position. Thousands of years later, the primordials, other ancient beings of power, rise up to battle the new gods, but lose. Some go dormant, while others are changed to demon princes.

The usurper gods leave the world of man, heading to the Astral Dominion, to protect the source of their power, in case the ancient gods should find a way back from their prison.

The world goes peaceful again, with gods battling for mankind’s attention, empires rising and falling etc.

Even more year passes.

The ancient gods, while powerless to escape their prison and fight the usurpers, are not without resources. They have managed to imbue a number of the usurper gods’ exarches with a tiny spark of their ancient divine power, so that should said Exarch ever become a god, he/she/it would evolve into one of the ancient gods.

For long, no one knows this. The spark is however stronger in some exarches, and one in particular feels the pull of the ancient gods. Asmodeus.

And as always, he has a plan.

Many years later, and not so long ago, during the Battle of the Nine Sons (causing the fall of the Empire of Nerath) he tricks Yeenoghu’s aspect. As it is hurled into the Abyss along with King Elidyr, he (Asmodeus in disguise) convinces the aspect to head back to the material plane, in order to finish the carnage started. But instead of leading it to the prime material plane, he traps it deep in the Shadowfell, in a temporal prison that will only open if opened by a priest of Orcus, which, let’s face it, isn’t very likely to happen.

Asmodeus then bides his time, waiting for the right time to put the final pawns in play (read: waits for the players to be born)

When the heroes are “ready”, he dupes Kalarel, causing Yeenoghu’s aspect to once again be loose in the world.

Yeenoghu’s aspect starts building his new horde of gnolls, demons and ghouls, and prepare to unleash carnage on the world.

Meanwhile, the heroes become more and more powerful.

When they are ready to face Yeenoghu (if they do not do it on their own),

Asmodeus does two things. He warns the usurper gods of the heroes’, telling them that the heroes are striving for godhood, convincing the usurper gods to use Yeenoghu’s aspect to deal with the heroes.

He also takes over (possesses) some high-up gnoll of the aspect, maybe a gnoll übershaman or something, or perhaps even some demonic advisor. Then, when the heroes kill Yeenoghu’s aspect, he spills the beans on the nature of the “gods” and their exarches. (yeah, this part is especially weak I think, but I am struggling with a good idea for how on earth the players can find info on the usurper gods and the divine source of power. I mean, it's hardly written down somewhere, I guess)

The heroes must now ignite the spark in the Exarch Kord, enabling them to enter his mind and going back through his memories, to find information on the source/focus of divine power, and what to do with it.

They then go through the motions, jump through all the hoops, find the artifacts needed, and close down the source of divine power, making the usurper gods mortal, and thus killable. It then ends with a huge battle against the 9 former gods (looks like 9*level 26 elite = a level 33 fight), and with their death, the exarches are “promoted” and the source of divine power returns.

 

[Tal Rasha]

Man, you have an awesome opportunity here. Campaign ending in the death of a massive number of gods? Yes sir, can I have another sir! You've already received some good suggestions, and your latest post is also not bad. I want to suggest the following.

I think you should just have your players jumping from astral dominion to astral dominion killing the gods, or if you want, they can also use some diplomacy and have 2 or 3 gods killed by intrigue, and they take care of the rest during the ensuing (year-lasting) confusion. It's not gonna be easy, it's gonna be long and painful, but oh will it ever be worth it.

This would probably work best if your players were cold evil soulless bastards; I'm thinking of a playable version of the History of the Dead Three. It would be harder if your players are good, you'd have to portray the new gods as usurpers whose influence is slowly destroying this new world, or some equivalent motivation for good players removing a large number of gods from the picture.

Ydars has a good point when he says that your gods need to be more than just powerful monsters. There should be consequences of killing gods, specific difficulties associated with one, a mythos of some sort. Where I disagree is with the suggestion that there be some sort of event that unilaterally disposes of the usurper gods (portal / artefact / battle with proxy of all gods etc). I think it has to be many battles, and I think it should be protracted in order to convey the difficulty of the whole endeavour.

OK, enough hand-waiving, let's see how I view this deific dethronement happening. I'll be using Greek gods as usurpers of FR gods.

The heroes find out about a weakness in the defences of Ares, usurper god of war and destruction. They find out that there exists a specific spear, which imbued with the proper magics and thrust powerfully and accurately into his throat will end his existence. The PCs find out what the ritual is and how they can acquire this spear. And they have one other datum that the rest of the world doesn't, gods included: they know that Ares is the one who killed the one and only lover Artemis ever had. A plot begins to form.

The PCs acquire the spear and the ritual, and they humbly present them as gifts to Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt. They tell her that they do this because of their veneration for her, and they also say that they heard of this terrible rumour, that they don't know is true but that they are afraid of and don't know what do. They heard that Ares was in fact the one responsible for Orion's death. They say this with fear in their voices and quivering bodies, with heads bowed and they ask her, deceptively, how they can protect themselves if Ares can strike at even those closes to the protector goddess.

Now Artemis is mightily enraged and goes to wage quick war against the bastard Ares. But while some of the PCs have this talk with her, the other members of the party will be warning Aphrodite that they have heard, by way of ancient prophecy related by a blind shamaness, that in a time soon to come the hunter (Artemis) will seek to kill the war maker. They ask for Aphrodite's guidance, they ask for what to do if the future will bring conflict between such a powerful two deities. Now Aphrodite will of course have a vested interest in this, seeing how she has a predilection (*ahem*) for Ares's charms and how she is the goddess of love and passion whereas Artemis is a chaste goddess.

The heroes, or shall we call them villains at this point, have the makings of an excellent trap. Previous to this twofold deception they will have prepared the stage: they know Ares and Artemis will meet in combat, and they will be waiting in ambush nearby because they know Aphrodite will appear in order to see if there really is a battle, and presumably to help her lover if he needs it. Artemis comes and she attacks Ares. While the fight is ongoing, Aphrodite appears. At this point the PCs must act quickly: they cast a dimensional anchor and prevent the goddess from teleporting out or from calling for help. They will after all be epic PCs with some considerable power at their disposal. Before she can react, the PCs jump on her and without much ado bring her to the brink of destruction. She is almost dead and asks to be spared, the PCs say they will only spare her if she tells them of a means to fight Hades, lord of the underworld. She tells them that she does not know but that she did hear of Persephone, his unwilling spouse, having knowledge of some artefact that could be helpful. The PCs thank her and unceremoniously kill her.

Now while this entire thing has been happening, Artemis will be having a slight advantage against Ares in combat. After all, she has the ritual and the epic spear. The PCs disguise themselves as worshippers of the war god, go to the site of battle and scream out loudly: "My lord, my lord, Artemis is on a path of mad destruction; before attacking you she slew your beloved Aphrodite. She lies dead in yonder dale. Lord, let us help you prevail against the crazed hunter." Now of course any protestations on Artemis' part as to being duped or some such will prove useless, and in any case she still wants to slay him as revenge for Orion. But the PCs will join Ares's side and with their epic might they will just barely prevail against the weakened goddess. As soon as the battle is over, the PC warrior picks up the epic spear and the PC sorcerer picks up the epic parchment, they turn on him and summarily slay him, in the conclusion of that which will henceforth forever be known as "the tripartite deception and murder".

At this point some interesting consequences will start to appear in the world. Because the locus of a lot of worship suddenly no longer exists, the PCs will need to channel the now aimless divine energies. They make contact with Sehanine, Kord and the Raven Queen. They tell them that tens of thousand of worshippers will be theirs, if they but accept to come over into this world, and grant the heroes a few boons. The "true" gods come over into the world and start to vie with the remaining gods, as soon as the latter become aware of their appearance. As part of the boons granted to the PCs by the true gods, they get improved scouting and information gathering skills from Sehanine, the help of Kord in future battles and the tenacity and resources of The Raven Queen in bringing down future god-threats (remember, there are still 6 gods to go). And of course, the true gods will have pledged not to attack the heroes for a period of 10 years, so long as the heroes do not attack them of course.

Now the heroes will be in a position of unprecedented power. They will have gained massive experience from the god battles, even more power, influence and resources from their pact with the new gods, and they will have created an unstable, distrusting and *frightened* pantheon. The time is ripe for the picking.

This is how I see the end of an epic campaign proceeding. You will have to adapt or maybe even change this entirely of course. You will need plot hooks, or maybe some sort of amoral (not immoral, amoral, entirely uninterested in how things turn out) prophet to tell the PCs how they can achieve their desired goals. If your players are good, substitute evil deities for the good ones above. Strike a powerful first blow and pick off the rest of the gods one by one in the confused aftermath (again, you will need to communicate this to your players somehow). Introduce more and more true gods as the usurpers fall, all the while growing your PCs in power. Think about the effects that worshippers without a patron deity can have upon the world, maybe you can use that. And do consider that if you really want to replace a whole pantheon you'll have to get rid of good as well as evil deities. And like I said, make it slow, difficult and rewarding.

Tell me if you like this. Even if you don't, I hope it at least gives you some ideas.

Tal Rasha