I ran my first Epic session last Sunday

[Pour]

I encouraged checks for the alien corpse, the machine, and the ceiling strands. I wasn't willing to give the connections away, but their high rolls did earn them clues and suppositions as to what some of these things could do. That was enough to get their imaginations going and soon we had some pretty fantastic and wild speculation between a few of the more cerebral characters (and the players who like the weird element). Combined with a little trial-and-error, we had a fun second half of the session:

Firstly, some background, and I apologize for the lore dump but it really does provide the context.

While the alien machine was interesting, there was no immediate urgency to decipher its secrets. No one knew what it was and there was a clear exit blocked by just a few, taught, glistening strands (contact poison, everyone assumed). However, a few PCs weren't in such a rush and the archdruid of all people, the one least at home in the Siege and usually a passive observer during these speculative jaunts, recognized clear depictions of dead world trees scattered throughout the cyber-tapestry. This holds special significance to our archdruid, who was chosen by Yggdrasil the World Tree (foremost of primal spirits) to become the Lord Archdruid and basically lead the efforts in restoring Balance.

In terms of the larger setting, their solar system is the last remnant of life in the entire universe. In order to spark new solar systems, or creations, two ingredients are needed. First is a star. Despite their sun being the last star in existence, the party had uncovered previously that, in healthy worlds, rare beings called Star Children are born, with the power to ignite new stars as emergent sun deities when joined with the second necessary ingredient, a world tree (which is the magical equivalent of gravity and natural laws to bind worlds and provide the primordial ingredients for life). Two, a boy and a girl, exist in the current day, the latter being the infant daughter of a late party member and the assassin's niece.

Now the archdruid's patron has been missing for some time, off sowing the universe with dormant world seeds in wait of a star. There has been no word and even the other primal spirits have lost all trace of him. However, upon closer look, the archdruid saw the exact positioning of his mentor and friend, far out near the edge of the depicted universe. Perhaps he could contact him, go to him, or even bring him back if he is lost through the use of this machine. Not to complicated this summary even further, but through a series of events which includes the return of the wayward star elves who brought with them a juvenile world tree from their adopted world, the possibility is open for Yggdrasil being replaced. Though our archdruid is loath to entertain the idea, certain Ythlords (Old Ones) have already infiltrated the worlds and could poison it so utterly he would be forced to accept the new world tree simply to bolster an already floundering Nature.

Phew, still with me? Okay.

So the impetus was there to figure the device out. The warlock, since returned from Orcus with the swordmage and assassin, used a last sight ritual to see through the corpse's eyes for about two minutes prior to its demise. She saw a control panel currently hidden beneath its now-fused flesh, which it operated, then aimed for somewhere in the center of the ceiling. A white beam fired from the end of the scope, but something black spewed back, a liquid stream which hit the creature full in the chest. In moments, it was being liquefied from the inside out, and melted onto the machine. Sparks flew, and something smoky gray and spherical shot from the barrel and became lost in the tangle of circuitry (which back then held many more illuminated strands).

With a high attack interpreted as surgical precision, the ardent used her lightning bolt to remove enough of the corpse's chest to reveal a control panel. A quartz mold of the alien's huge, tentacled hand was surrounded by twelve symbols, which the druid noticed correlated with sections of the woven ceiling. One or two of the PCs had abilities which allowed them to read and understand 'any' language, and the druid identified the twelve symbols as an alien zodiac correlating to constellations. He had pretty free reign to create the symbols as needed with minimal guidance on my part. They realized four zodiac symbols could be slid into the palm of the imprint, what the ardent suspected were coordinates in space and time, but what others suspected were coordinates for three-dimensional space and an origin point (cue Stargate music).

The angel, wanting to explore the halls beyond the threshold for clues as to the nature of the device, severed one of the twelve glistening strands like harp-string barring her way. Suddenly a whole swath of ceiling came undone and fell to the ground. After a moment's held breath, nothing bad happened. The portion of ceiling (determined by a d12) did not contain the knots depicting their solar system, nor was it hanging above any PC's head. She was reprimanded for her impatience before the ardent sent a probing eye beyond the strands to examine the beginnings of a circular hallway ringing the Starcellar, complete with two sealed double doors.

The psion, passing a joint skill/ability check of Arcana and Dexterity, managed to rejoin the severed strand and restore the loom through a sustain minor usage of her telekinesis. However she would not be able to hold it forever. The warlock began work on a ten minute make whole ritual, hoping her efforts would prove fruitful. I'd note that sometimes the players get, well, I wouldn't call it lazy, or meta-y, but they do ask me now and then things like "Will make whole fix the strands?" to which I would always reply, "Only one way to find out."

The angel wanted to cut more strands until the sphere fell out, but the others didn't want to risk damaging the device any more than it already had been. The angel had a feeling they were opting for the 'hard way', even as the ardent began scanning the strands with her mind in search of the orb. Instead of sensing, as she anticipated, a nest of circuitry, she glimpse vast deadways, catacombs spanning the cosmos, ruins of world upon world upon world, and the destitute and dried up rivers of uncounted underworlds and toppled heaps of hundreds of heavens and hells. She noticed, too, a few scattered beings, wretched and solitary, hiding amidst the devastation, lost souls, vestiges of ancient powers, orphaned servitors, who could really say. It seemed the ceiling was either a perfect depiction of the universe, down to microscopic detail, OR it was some sort of overlay which allowed for pinpoint viewing (and maybe transporting?).

Weathering the glimpses as they passed in and out, the ardent managed to move enough circuitry aside to glimpse the rounded polish of the orb. However, in order to disperse so much of the ceiling, the ardent was held to a sustain move action to keep the orb exposed. It also forced her, due to the nature of her power, to remain within 5 squares. If something went wrong, she'd be right there.

With the warlock's make whole ritual complete, and successful, the psion was freed to fly up and investigate the orb further. The assassin had climbed up the walls and thought about fishing through the circuitry, but the archdruid thought it more prudent to test the glistening secretion first. He sent vines and sprigs up into the tapestry ahead of the assassin, which promptly shriveled up and turned to dust by the time they hit the floor. The assassin understandable climbed back down with a few, choice words. Yet the psion had a phasing ability and, before anyone could protest further, plunged her arm into the circuits and wrapped her hand around the orb (which allowed her to hold it without passing through). Oh, and her ghostly arm didn't wither and turn to dust, either.

Now last session, the angel had learned the last creature through the portal was some resurrected divinity of the ancient past turned into a lesser exarch in the Exgod's service. There had been no sign of such a thing, and yet, as the psion began to pry the orb out (passing, if you can believe, a Strength check!) it turned in her grip to reveal a narrow, black slit. The deadly liquid coating the circuits began to thicken into slime and drip in generous amounts throughout the chamber, forcing the PCs to reposition. The archdruid, who along with the ardent has a passive perception I believe in the low 40's, noticed the circuitry beginning to move in very snake-like ways, shifting and drawing around the orb's position.

Suddenly, a massive, black, medusa-like head burst forth from the weave. The psion, still clutching the orb, was in fact gripping the eye of a giant, disembodied head (the other already missing). The lore of the seminary and a campaign blog post from a few weeks back revealed this to be, at the very least, a vestige of the Mother of Beasts, Lyth, one of the Merciless pantheon of the prior solar system. At the very worst, this WAS Lyth, in which case they were now facing an angry goddess in a small chamber with instant-death slime raining overhead. Luck was with the party and they all rolled ahead of her in initiative, in due course managing to drive her back into the circuitry, until the warlock, using her vampiric gaze, overwhelmed Lyth and pushed her quite a few squares back, enough for her to vanish from sight (and ending the encounter, though they were wary for a good time after that knowing I just love a good jump scare hehe).

This brought about a second flurry of speculation on the planetary orbs, the device, and just what this portion of the Siege was meant for- if it was actually part of the Exgod's Siege at all. The architecture was different here, more alien tomb than demonic bastion. That aside, a number of prevailing theories, none confirmed as of yet, offered the following possibilities, all of which made me proud of the group for just how deep they were thinking this through.

I'll leave you with the cliffhanger I gave them:

Could this strange technology also have something to do with why Orcus is actually here in such a ravaged state? Or heck, even the Exgod himself? Is a Ythlord behind all of this? Or is the ship acting out? Or have ancient protocols from a dead alien civilization multiple Creations ago suddenly been activated? Did they actually farm divine vestiges, the flickers of surviving sparks, to power their machinery? Are the spheres power sources, prisons, or maybe both? Or is the ship powered by the waking Merciless, long thought deceased? Who is actually in control? Find out next time...

Of all their theories, I liked the idea that the ship runs on divine power. After all, one of the orbs turned out to be Lyth's eye (though given the sort of dimensional displacement between the strands and visions of the actual places, its possible the orb wasn't REALLY her eye, but more the catalyst which allowed her manifestation). This led to the notion this device was actually some sort of snare or tractor beam meant to pinpoint vulnerable divinities on the overhead tapestry and capture them in energy spheres. These aliens were, in fact, hunters of a sort, following in the wake of Yth devestation and harvesting the remnants as fuel for their own civilization. What the warlock saw in her last moments ritual was a hunt gone bad, and Lyth, far more dangerous than she appeared, striking back. In that scenario, the warlock may have seen the beginning of the end of the entire alien civilization. And if Lyth endured, suddenly more credence is given to the notion the Merciless may lurk in these sublevels...

 

[pemerton]

I ran my second Epic session yesterday - it follows on from the OP of this thread.

The previous session had ended with the PCs taking an extended rest. As this was their first extended rest as Epic tier PCs, I though that some epic dreams were in order - this would give me a chance to drop some backstory and suggest some possible directions for the players.

The deva invoker/wizard/Divine Philosopher/Sage of Ages - whose Epic status (particularly +6 to all knowledge skills) was narrated, within the fiction, as his Memories of 1000 Lifetimes becoming transparent to him. In his dream, he recalled his role, in the distant past, in helping Erathis construct the Lattice of Heaven; and then Lolth's betrayal, such that she no longer helped in weaving the Lattice together; and then the Dawn War, in which the Lattice was shattered. He also recalled his subsequent participation in Erathis's "Game of Making" - whereby the Lattice cannot be rebuilt until all things that can be made have been made. And finally, he recalled that he had been sent to the mortal world in human form to remake the Sceptre of Law (= Rod of 7 Parts), for when this is done then the Game of Making will be complete. (I posted a report of the session in which the human wizard/invoker was reborn as a deva invoker/wizard here.)

The PC currently has 5 bits of the Sceptre - he gained the first at 2nd level after being killed while fighting undead among old Nerathi ruins. In real life, I asked the player if he wanted to keep playing his PC, which he did. And he conjectured that his PC would be returned to life by the Raven Queen and Erathis because there was something that he would have to recover from the ruins. In the game, the PC returned to life shortly after dying, with memories of the Raven Queen and Erathis discussing his fate, and realised that there was something he had to find in the ruins - as it turned out, the first shard of the Sceptre.

The player was intrigued by the dream, and interested to learn that as well as a purpose that he has been imbued with by the Sceptre - namely, to finally kill Miska the Wolf-Spider - he also has a purpose for which he was sent from the heavens into the mortal world - namely, to reassemble the Sceptre. But the PC is also a (closet? reluctant? the nature and details are a little obscure) devotee of Vecna, and he's not sure he wants to re-establish the Lattice of Heaven and absolute divine order, because it seems to him that in such a world there is no room for secrets, or for anything to be hidden.

The tiefling paladin of the Raven Queen/Questing Knight/Marshal of Letherna dreamed of a part of the Shadowfell he had not heard of before - the Bridge that may be Traversed but Once. He saw the wailing souls of the dead trudging across it, into some unknowable distance, under the cruel supervision of Ometh. Ometh is an exarch of the Raven Queen whom this PC has never met but doesn't particularly care for - Ometh was formerly an exarch of Nerrul whom the Raven Queen subdued and brought into her service. (The idea for Ometh I got from a mini-module - the Bloodtower - in Open Grave - Ometh is described there as resembling a flayed dwarf.) As Ometh seemed to be being venerated by Vecna cultists, the paladin also feels that he may not be fully loyal to his mistress.

This PC's current Quest (an element of his paragon path) is to free the Soul Abattoir from Torog (which is how the PCs ended up in the Underdark in the first place). He is now adding Ometh and the Bridge onto that list, I think.

The elven cleric-ranger of the Raven Queen is an undead and demon hunter who is more interested in the fate/destiny aspects of her portfolio, rather than death. This PC felt Lolth calling to him, speaking of the debt that the elves owed her, and that remained unpaid, and of her desire to be restored as the god of fate. But the PC was not tempted, even though Lolth's temple was barely a stone's throw from where he was sleeping, and he remained resolute in his hostility to her and to her demons.

The fighter/cleric/Warpriest/Eternal Defender - a paladin of Moradin - of course dreamed of the forges of Erackinar, where Moradin works day and night with his exarchs and servants preparing arms and armour for the Dusk War that he fears must surely come. At 24th level an Eternal Defender grows in statute and can wield large-sized weapons, and this PC has two weapons - an exotic halberd and a dwarven thrower artefact (Whelm) reforged as a mordenkrad (Overwhelm). The dream of Moradin's forges portended the need, soon, to reforge these two weapons if the paladin is to stand, when the time comes, as a true defender of the world against the onslaught it faces. The reforging of Whelm as Overwhelm took place in a mortal forge, but it seems likely that next time that will not be adequate for the job.

The fifth PC is the drow chaos sorcerer/Demonskin Adept who, in the previous session, took aid (not quite knowingly, but perhaps with some wilful blindness) from Yan-C-Bin, letting himself be healed by the Prince of Evil Air Elementals while temporarily trapped on the Abyss. As he tranced while the others slept, he felt low whispers calling to him, speaking of the only force powerful enough to stop the gods turning all to stasis - an ancient, primordial power called the Elder Elemental Eye. This produced some discussion - partially in-character, partially out-of-character (an ambiguity that I didn't feel any need to press on) about the merits of stasis vs utter chaos and death, and the possibility of a middle way which perhaps all the PCs might embrace. The drow also realised that - for some reason that he could only guess might be connected to his dealing with Yan-C-Bin - he had some sort of affliction giving him -2 Fort and Will defence vs elemental creatures. (The only PC capable of casting Remove Affliction is of course the Sceptre of Law-wielding invoker.)

Anyway, after this bit of free narration and discussion I then cut to the next stage of their dreams, which I had taken from the P2 module itself - Zirithian, the former knight of Lolth who has turned to the worship of Orcus and called forth the the demons and undead who wiped out the drow outpost, called the PCs into a dreamworld to taunt and question them.

In the module this is a complexity 3 (8 successes before 3 failures) challenge - I ran it as complexity 5 (12 successes before 3 failures), but with something in mind to happen when the players reach 8 successes. To run this I used @Mabearcat's idea: after the first skill check - which was Arcana from the drow to ascertain whether or not it was an illusion - I set down three dice, a d12 on 1 (for 1 success of 12), a d4 on 4 (for 0 failures, with 3 failures meaning loss) and a d6 on 6 (for 6 "advantages" remaining, as per the Rules Compendium treatment of skill challenges). I briefly explained this to the players, and then they went at it. The paladin greeted the drow knight respectfully (Hard Diplomacy success, counted as two by spending an advantage) and the drow greeted him in return as a fellow knight of death. The invoker (Hard Arcana success, counted as two by spending an advantage) realised that it was indeed a dreamworld, and I let this count as realisation for the drow too, but the other PCs didn't know yet. The dwarf charged the knight of Orcus (spending a daily power in the process) and hit, but the knight just reformed, laughing and complimenting the dwarf on his prowess but mocking him for not having realised that the scene wasn't real (a 6th success). The ranger used Insight to try to ascertain the mood and purpose of the knight and his dreamworld (a secondary check, upgraded from a +2 to a difficulty shift by spending an advantage) while the invoker mocked him for his adoration of Orcus, pointing out that Orcus could not and would not give him immortality (Intimidate success) and the ranger then made a successful Diplomacy check, pointing out that Zirithian seemed to have made a pointless change of allegiance, from the Demon Queen Lolth who is nothing but lies and treachery to the Demon Prince Orcus who is nothing but the promise of eternal dissolution.

At that point 8 successes were reached, and Zirithian, angered by the mocking and cut to the core by what the elf had said dismissed the PCs from his dreamworld. But instead of being returned to their slumber, the were brought into another dream by an old enemy of theirs, a voidal lich whom they had fought and killed once before when it was sent by Pazrael to hunt them down, but who now had reconstituted itself (they had never looked for the phylactery). The drow made a show of a reasoned desire to bargain, which the dwarf picked up on but theatrically treated as genuine, and used as an excuse to reaffirm how committed he and the others were to opposing Orcus - and then the paladin (citing the example of Kas, a vampire who is allied to the Raven Queen) called upon the lich to change its allegiance (two Diplomacy successes again). This took the player to 12 successes, and so instead of attacking them (for real) in their sleep, the lich decided to talk with them instead, sharing its knowledge and making it clear that if felt no loyalty to Orcus (Orcus had let this spirit of the Far Realm take over the body of a human performing the ritual of lichdom in return for handing over the secret of making putrid slaads), but mocking them also for being trapped in "this side" (whereas it was from "the other side") and therefore being doomed to dissolution when its mistress returns.

This was a chance for the PCs (and the players) to get some more backstory - the drow had already heard the prophecy that soon "A’othorh’s shroud will darken the gateway" (this is from the Demonomicon), and knew that it was connected to the sigils of chaos emblazoned on his demonskins and also on the inside of his eyelids (hence his 16th level "Glimpse of the Abyss" paragon path feature). The PCs now learned that this was prophesied to occur when the Sceptre of Law is reassembled, and hence that the PC's quests don't matter to the eventual course of things. The lich also told the PCs that all things lost can be found in the Abyss (including, it hinted at least, part of the Sceptre), in the land of Oublivae, but that this doesn't matter either as when its mistress returns all will come to an end. Even the fate of Miska the Wolf Spider will be irrelevant. And it told the PCs that if they want to know more about the end of all things they should speak to Ygorl, the most powerful of slaads, who is (the lich pointed out) known as the Lord of Entropy - indicative of the entropy and dissolution that lies at the end of this world.

The paladin of the Raven Queen did take some comfort, though, in proving that the lich didn't know the fate of the souls who traverse the Bridge that may be Traversed but Once, suggesting that at least some lost things may not end up in the Abyss. He also got the lich to tell him more about the Soul Abattoir, and learned that Torog shrives the souls that come there, drawing out their power by torture, before they then pass on to Letherna and the Shadowfell proper. He also got advice on how to beat Orcus in combat - call upon Pazrael for assistance, and trigger a +5 to hit and crit range of 18-20. The player duly noted all this on his character sheet, but the PC then gave a long speech about the folly of calling upon evil powers, written on his own body - his horns, his tail - by the wickedness of his ancestors. Which led the player of the dwarf to declare that "I've finally worked out why he's so obsessed with death - it's self-hatred of his own tiefling nature!" The player of the tiefling, meantime, muttered things about needing to have a longer talk with the dwarf.

So anyway, the interview with a lich ended - the lich saying that it looked forward to meting the PCs in real life again, when they came to close the second Breach - and the PCs returned to their bodies and awoke refreshed (although in the case of the dwarf also down a daily power). They decided it was time to head off and close the second Abyssal Breach. They opted not to take the drow soldiers with them this time, but instead to go via the house of Jhaelent, a drow wizard whom they had earlier befriended (sort of, after breaking down his door but then apologising nicely about it), and whom they knew to be a chaos necromancer with slaads preserved in formaldehyde, and therefore someone who might give them tips on dealing with putrid slaads (they had fought them before, and wanted some acid resistance).

The NPC wizard couldn't give any tips, but was keen to come along and see some putrid slaads, and so shifted his consciousness into the body of his web golem and sent it to tag along with the PCs.

I ran this as another complexity 5 skill challenge - 6 successes to negotiate with Jhaelent and make it to the Breach, and 6 successes to actually close the Breach. (With some ideas as to the consequences of failures along the way). Negotiating with Jhaelent went smoothly (the drow, tiefling and invoker handled this), as did the trip to the Breach - the ranger flew up on his flying carpet and used Perception to plot a path, while the dwarf fighter fought off the minor demons and undead (I didn't handle this as a combat, but gave the fighter the option of either losing a healing surge, spending an encounter close burst power or clocking down an advantage in the skill challenge - the player opted to lose one out of 15 surges).

The Breach was guarded by the voidal lich, plus a pod demon and a ghoul eyebiter. In conjunction with the Breach this was a 22nd level encounter. It lasted for 1 round and two turns - the drow sorcerer opened and unleashed Thunder Summons and his Daily Prismatic Explosion, and the invoker/wizard - riding on the flying carpet borrowed from the ranger-cleric - went next, opening an Arcane Gate and flying through it next to the Breach 50' up in the air, getting a double success with Arcana and then spending an Action point to get a double success with Religion.

The ranger went next, shooting and killing the lich (who had been blinded by the Prismatic Explosion).

At this point the demon and ghoul got to act - the demon spawned one podspawn and flung more at the flying invoker, while the ghoul attacked the ranger with its Eye of Doresain, forcing the ranger to Yield Ground. But then the fighter charged in, using Come and Get It to draw in both demon and ghoul. And the paladin came in last, killing both with his Astral Thunder. The four PCs had done over 600 points of damage in one round (and this without Expertise feats in use). The web golem just watched, impressed.

The sorcerer on his next turn used Blazing Starfall to take out the one lonely podspawn, and the invoker then acted again and, with a double success from spending the last of 6 advantages, closed the Breach.

I think everyone was a little surprised by how easily and quickly it went - especially compared to the hard slog of the previous one - but I guess it shows what a well-rested party can do when they take the initiative.

They took a short rest, but are about 20 yards or so from the front door of the temple of Lolth, and so are planning on keeping the initiative and bursting in there to clear it out before they then tackle Zirithian himself - they figure that now that the Breaches are closed there will be no more demons and undead to keep the drow at bay, and they don't want to tackle Zirithian first and then have to come back to face drow trickery or treachery.

The PCs are a little more than 6,000 XP short of 22nd, so should level next session. So far, at least, Epic has been pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to more of it.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] Did you guys start this campaign in 4e at level 1?

I imagine committed players, with effective character builds, and experienced with those builds must be all but indestructible in epic tier combats.

 

[pemerton]

Did you guys start this campaign in 4e at level 1?

Yep - though one of the PCs died at 2nd level, so the drow sorcerer came in at 3rd. And the deva invoker/wizard started out as a human wizard, and was rebuilt following resurrection around 16th level.

I imagine committed players, with effective character builds, and experienced with those builds must be all but indestructible in epic tier combats.

They're pretty good - they tend to synergise well in play, and have pretty good healing management to keep the party up.

The builds range in effectiveness. The sorcerer seems (to me at least, and I don't hang out on char ops) pretty optimised, with an at-will Blazing Starfall attacking a burst 2 for 2d4+1d10+42. He also has Resist Thunder, Lightning, Fire and Poison from a mix of character features and items, plus variable resistance from his paragon path, plus variable resistance from a Demonskin Tattoo. At various times he has been multiclassed as an assassin, a bard, a cutthroat and a monk (drow-fu) - but has now gone back to bard so as to get Walk Among the Fey to boost his Unlucky Teleport, which combines with his Mark of Storms and his Thunder Admixture. He uses his Cloud of Darkness, Dominant Winds and his Pillar of Earth (6th level utility from Heroes of the Elemental Chaos) to keep himself out of, or safe within, the fray.

The ranger-cleric is not as optimised, but is still not too bad with Twin Strike at 2d12+12 times two, +3d8 Quarry - and plenty of immediate actions for between-rounds damage boosts.

The fighter's damage is not all that high, but his control is very strong; and with over 160 hit points and a surge value of 50 when bloodied plus a Cloak of the Walking Wounded he is pretty resilient - I remeber that in one recent fight he took over 400 hp of damage and was still in the thick of things at the end of it. The paladin is a mix of implement and weapon attacks, and the weapon is a khopesh which I don't think all that highly of (but it opens up the Turathi weapon training feat); but he is also hard to take down. His to hit and damage pick up markedly against bloodied foes (tiefling, gauntlets of blood, bloodthirsty weapon).

The invoker is probably the weakest in combat - certainly the fewest hit points (just over 100 at 21st level), very little damage, but quite a bit of control, especially blindness - but is also the party ritualist and sage, and in combat has the key utilities like Astral Step and Arcane Gate, as well as sliding allies via various invoker riders.

Between them they cover most of the bases. To apply pressure, I generally have to run multiple encounters (4 to 7+) of well above average party level (+2 to +4) so that surges and dailies start to wear down.

 

[Manbearcat]

I figured I could post something slightly different in this repository for Epic tier play. There is overlap here with the ongoing Paladin thread, but I'm not particularly interested in dipping my toe in those turbulent waters any more than I have already (on this board and others), so I'll frame it for this thread as it will likely have the most utility here.

For my current 4e game we decided to do something interesting to open the Epic tier of play. A friend was going to be spending a few weeks in town so we decided to take good advantage of it. This (unfortunately) happened to correspond with roughly the same period of time when one of the 3 players in my group would be unavailable. What we did was create the backstory, which emerged in play, of the main Epic tier antagonist; about 6 sessions...maybe 25ish hours (yes, it felt like high school). This antagonist is a Paladin and will remain so awhile longer. He is something of a combination of Eddard Stark, Jesse James and Stannis Baratheon; a propensity for cold, terse, distance...but just, honorable and unflinchingly committed to his (in part perceived and in part true) duty, with an instinct/intuition so uncanny that it seems almost supernatural. The adventure was the playing out of his vestigial metamorphosis from knightly protector and crusader to enforcer to something deeply malignant; from philosophically idealistic to almost entirely utilitarian. The evolution of his philosophical strain was premised entirely upon the real world requirements of his ethos in an inhospitable land...sort of the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood; a great sacrifice of the internal innocence of a true believer because, as a front-line combatant, you don't have the luxury of standing on the sidelines and surveying the hard decisions...you live them...in real time (means vs ends etc). A "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain" story.

The game had the 3 PCs:

* A Lazylord/Princess-build squire and scribe who served as chronicler for the Paladin's ascension to the throne. The character was a complete non-combatant whose Leader-aspect was a metagame construct. He had tons of Knowledge Skills/Powers.

* The Paladin's Celestial Steed; A Silver Dragon with At-Will Alter Self (mostly staying in the form of a silver-haired, female Eladrin). This character used the Companion Rules. Like the Lazylord, tons of Knowledge Skills.

* The Paladin who would serve as major foil for the PCs in the ongoing game. I will break this character out in greater detail in terms of the primary abilities that were leveraged in this game. He had 3 Distinctions/Beliefs that thematically guided our play:

- "I let the scourge into my homeland...I will drive it out."

- "The sick, the sullied and the down-trodden shall not carry their burden alone. I will take on their miseries and protect them from the vile inequities of the world."

- "Station is a vessel for the advancement of justice, benevolence, and mercy. Solely do I understand this. It is manifest destiny that I rule."

Background Cultist (Streetwise trained). His family were extremely upper crust and his parents were demon-worshipers. This was commonplace amongst the bourgeois and royals. The power behind the throne was Abyssal in origin. He grew up an acolyte of the same twisted faith.

Theme (Knight Hospitaler). His parents were willing sacrifices to a demon lord; consumed during one of the order's sacrificial rituals. The boy beheld this through the spaces between the floor-boards from a crawl space. Reviled, he attempted to flee but was caught and summarily killed...but it didn't take. Arisen again as a Revenant, he fled his homeland, ending up on a "Boy's Ranch" far away, ultimately being plucked from there by an order of roving healers. The primary feature (beyond the healing elements) of the Theme that affected play was: You can request food and lodging for yourself and your traveling companions from any temple affiliated with your hospitaler order, or from any noble household. Your request for hospitality will be honored in all but the most unusual circumstances. This came into play twice in the short game.

Paragon Path (Demonslayer). By this point, the Paladin had many years abroad in campaigns against demonic incursions. The primary feature of this Paragon Path that came into play was Demonslayer's Presence: Any demon that starts its turn adjacent to you takes damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. While any demon is adjacent to you, it can’t shift. Mechanically, in effect, we treated this feature as a "Detect Demon" ability. In a Sanitarium Skill Challenge, the Paladin player would use this ability on a patient, an orderly, or the medical superintendent. On a success, the player would get to determine if the target was in fact possessed/shapeshifted and results would ensue in accord with that. If you were using this in a sim game for objective task resolution (outside of the framework of a non-combat, conflict resolution system), you would have the demon make a Bluff check with the DC being the passive Insight check of the Paladin and the GM would narrate the (likely binary) results.

Epic Destiny (Legendary Sovereign) Given his resurrected state, he eventually came to understand that his Divinely-compelled destiny was to expose, confront and destroy the demonic power behind the throne of his homeland; and ultimately claim it for the greater good. To that end, with the game being setup primarily as investigation/interviews/interrogations/parlays, the following two features (coupled with all of the other Charisma and skill enhancing features) came into play in a big way. Homeland: With the DM’s approval, choose a realm you are destined to rule. You are regarded as a great hero in that land. You gain a +4 bonus to any Charisma-based skill checks you make within that land. You have property or estates there sufficient to provide for your ordinary needs, including the resources to maintain a household and a small force of loyal retainers. Legendary Presence: Your Charisma score increases by 2.

This game was probably 3:1 non-combat conflict resolution to combat resolution. The thrust of the game was that the Paladin was now leading his holy order of Hospitaler/Demonslaying Knights on a mission to purge the land of its demonic heritage. The overarching, macro-mechanical framework of this was an Extended Skill Challenge to "Uncover the Demonic Power Behind the Throne" 8:3. Each of these successes or failures was a micro Skill Challenge which included the investigation of Sanitariums set up throughout the region. Success or failure would propel the macro Skill Challenge and the narrative forward toward their ultimate conclusions. Not all Sanitariums were corrupt. There were a few legitimate, benevolent enterprises at work. Success on these Skill Challenges meant the players were given narrative rights to frame the results of the Sanitarium investigation (corrupt or legitimate and where that took the story). Failure (there were two), opened the rendering up to my take. Yes...Shrodinger's Sanatariums. Investigative, interrogation and parlays were carried out via mundane means and many uses of Divine Rituals to bind and command demons, remove their presence from the afflicted, discern lies, hallow a temple, or place a Mark of Justice (a goodly curse) on a creature (command by proxy). The following Skills, Feats, Channel Divinity, Powers and Rituals were all brought to bear in the resolution of these challenges:

Skills - Athletics, Diplomacy, Heal, Insight, Intimidate, Nature, Religion, Streetwise.

Feats - Skill Mastery (Insight), Power of Justice (+ 2 feat bonus Insight and At-Will bonus), Knightly Bearing (+2 feat bonus to Diplomacy and Intimidate), A few Skill Trainings and Multi-class Fighter.

Powers - Several healing effects and saving throw effects that included sacrificing Healing Surges (including LoH), Astral Speech (Daily: Divine + 4 power bonus to Diplomacy for the duration of a Skill Challenge, Gift of Life (Daily: Restore a creature to life by sacrificing your life force), Channel Divinity - Divine Fate (Encounter: you or ally rerolls failed skill, ability check, or saving throw), Call Celestial Steed (Silver Dragon Companion; Player Character with a full suite of actions and autonomy, etc).

Rituals - Discern Lies, Hallowed Temple (Demons and undead cannot cross the temple’s threshold), Mark of Justice (the afformentioned permanent commanding curse that deblitates the afflicted if the forbidden action/behavior is undertaken), Remove Affliction (used to lift possession), Magic Circle and Adjure (to bind and command or banish a demon; a Skill Challenge unto itself).


So we played this out and created the setting chronology and the backstory, disposition, and forward trajectory of the primary antagonist (the Reborn Paladin) in the Epic tier of play for our regular campaign. Each minor Skill Challenge investigation of a sanitorium and its orderlies accrued a success or failure in that greater challenge. Ultimate failure or success of that Skill Challenge was going to have ramifications for the Paladin and his modus operandi with respect to his ethos. The PCs accrued only two failures, ultimately revealing and defeating the Archdemon behind the throne, thus purging the demonic influence and claiming the throne for the Paladin. However, like any good victory it was a Pyrrhic one as the two accrued losses severely affected the soon-to-be antagonist. One loss ended in the fiery destruction of one of the sanatariums, extinguishing hundreds of innocent lives and letting loose a contingent of demons that pillaged the countryside until they were tracked down and slain. The second loss resulted in the death of the wealthy philanthropist who spent his fortune on the construction, maintanence and running of legitimate, benevolent sanitariums and orphanages across the nation. The loss of his life, his fortune and his mission was a grave blow to the Paladin. He won the power of his home nation and defeated the demonic scourge, but the scope of the losses to be endured and the disturbing depth of the demonic subversion of society changed him from a man of ends more toward a man of means, ultimately leading to the character's place as primary antagonist for the PCs to battle. He became a suspicious, insular autocrat; deeply untrusting such that he would never put any subordinates in a positions of power to affect important ends where lnnocent lives or justice might be at stake. He became ruthless in his pursuit of justice and the protection of the meek; seizing lands, titles and fortunes from the nobility in order to rebuild the lost sanitariums, hospitals and orphanages. His borderline supernatural intuition led to witch hunts when he suspected demonic possession as the root cause of behaviors and a series of imperial campaigns against neighboring nations when it became clear to him that the scourge that he had routed in his own nation had infected his neighbors...and his insight was so keen, so divinely inspired, that he was never wrong...or so the stories catalogued.

Our game will uncover the true source of his power.

All told:

1) If folks are interested, I would highly recommend such an endeavor. It has ensconsed the players collective interest in setting like never before; and they are invested in their foe like never before. And it was fun!

2) I can make a case for this guy maintaining his Paladin-hood, Lawful Good alignment and status as (an extremely effective) Exarch/Champion to his God's Domains almost up until the very end. I would not punish a player for this extreme evolution such that he loses his powers. He hasn't lost his Divine powers in my game. Its made for an extremely interesting antagonist and the game could just as well be played from his perspective as a protagonist.

Ultimately, it will be revealed that the powers of his Divinations are Abyssal in nature and that he has hordes of Abyssal agents either under his thrall or "on the take"...all of this is for the greater good of his ethos. His demonic apotheosis will culminate and his descension will lead to the loss of his Divine powers and the gain of "greater" Abyssal powers as a demon lord.

3) Having been told so many times recently that 4e is a platform built almost exclusively for resolution in the theatre of combat, I was shocked to have 25 + hours of meaningful, primarily non-combat, conflict resolution and how well equipped the characters were to affect those ends via their build decisions interfacing with the game mechanics.

 

[Quickleaf]

Ultimately, it will be revealed that the powers of his Divinations are Abyssal in nature and that he has hordes of Abyssal agents either under his thrall or "on the take"...all of this is for the greater good of his ethos. His demonic apotheosis will culminate and his descension will lead to the loss of his Divine powers and the gain of "greater" Abyssal powers as a demon lord.

Sounds like a great start to epic tier for your campaign!

I wonder about how this part works. Why would the paladin choose to bind demons rather than destroy them? To have spies in the enemy camp? Spies hardly constitutes "hordes" however.
Also, how is it possible that he "accidentally" has been contacting Abyssal powers instead of his god for ritual Divinations? Especially when he can detect demons?
What do his trusty companions, the sage and the silver dragon, have to say about all this?

 

[Manbearcat]

I wonder about how this part works. Why would the paladin choose to bind demons rather than destroy them? To have spies in the enemy camp?

Precisely. He drove them fully from his nation once upon a time. He drove them out of his neighbors' lands, ultimately conquering those lands and bringing them into his fold. However, the wanton vice, hedonism and lechery of his people have slowly brought the demonic influence back over time and the size of his empire will have become too unwieldy for him to monitor every corner. It became clear to him that no matter how many demons he exorcises, banishes or destroys, another (or more) is ready to take its place. The course of this and the general emotional/mental attrition of constantly looking for (and finding) wolves in sheeps clothing took its toll. Given these things, he slowly decided that the more effective route was to improve his intelligence network by recruiting his enemies' enemies and by using the carrot approach of Mark of Justice (which reigns them in) and allowing them to stay as long as they are subservient rather than the outright banishment via Adjure.

Mind you, this backstory campaign to carve out this antagonist took place many decades before the PC's campaign. By this time, he has an enormous spy network in place throughout the empire (which he has been slowly losing control of) and brokered deals with many higher powers in the Abyss. His intelligence network is deep, but its a network wrought of Abyssal double agents in the prime world (that he has cowed) and extra-planar powers allied against his enemies.

Again, its a "you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain" motif. In this case, sort of a John Adams being aghast at something akin to the Alien and Sedition Acts before having executive power, and then enacting it while in power. Or Thomas Jefferson being unabashedly against unchecked executive power and then unilaterally engaging in the Barbary Wars and using unprecedented (obviously the nation was young at that point though) power while office. Being a leader of a country or of a revolution is a hard thing. Theory often bends to practicality as the situation on the ground changes.

I was going to use this backstory and extrapolate the society and the Paladin as a World Controller Mustapha Mond in Huxley's Brave New World but there is not enough passion in that society nor enough "punch" in that "villain" for a D&D campaign. Great hero turned imperialist autocrat turned Abyssal Red Dragon riding Demonlord is much more genre relevant and fun!

Spies hardly constitutes "hordes" however.

What about a horde of spies "Horde" as in a descriptor for a vast swath/legion of something; in this case informants or an entire intelligence network...not as mass of bodies; eg swarm.

Also, how is it possible that he "accidentally" has been contacting Abyssal powers instead of his god for ritual Divinations? Especially when he can detect demons?

I was referring to the generic term "divination" and not the actual ritual itself; eg he uses an intelligence network to "divine" the agenda and movements of enemy combatants/agents/cultists.

What do his trusty companions, the sage and the silver dragon, have to say about all this?

The scribe/chronicler is a loyal servant, believes in the Paladin's vision, quest/destiny and helped facilitate his legend. He willingly takes the plunge down the rabbit hole with him. However, he never serves as council but basically serves the role of Joseph Goebbels for the Third Reich; Minister of Propaganda. He will be extremely aged at the time of the campaign and will only be color; not someone for the PCs to actually wage combat against.

The Paladin will have lost the service of his loyal steed; the Celestial Silver Dragon. In its stead will be an Abyssal Red Dragon; a red lady whispering in his ear much like Stannis Baratheon because there are no original ideas and I'm a thief just like everyone else. And again, what is more fitting as a climactic battle to end a game than a rumble against a Red Dragon riding Demonlord in the Abyss?

 

[Pour]

After so many questions and too few answers regarding the dead ship, fused alien corpse, and strange telescopic device, the warlock decided to ask the cadaver some questions. She cast a necromantic ritual and reanimated the elephantine creature (making the necessary Arcana check to allow for three questions). It 'spoke' in a mixture of psionics and "whale songs" from several desiccated blowholes, which spewed clouds of dead skin particles with each usage (thought that was a nice detail hehe).

While difficult to narrow questions down to just three, the warlock managed to learn the aliens, which called themselves the Ibha Varana, were in fact a civilization of hunters which used the device, the woven ceiling, and a compass (found just prior by the ardent) to snare the remnants of gods, demons, angels, and spirits who survived the Yth. Using planetary spheres, the telescopic device could be activated and used to snare beings from any point in the universe (with the proper combination of sigils and planets as described last play report) and deposited into something called an isochron crystal. The crystals surrounded them in hidden antechambers. No telling what could still be trapped within them, if the Exgod hadn’t gotten to them first.

There was a real vested interest throughout the questioning and just about every party member offered up good suggestions on what to ask. Three questions, which I initially thought was a lot, turned out to only fuel the curiosity and add to the mystery (go figure, revealing more actually enriching the strangeness and curiosity of the whole place). They were enough to convince the archdruid not to summon forth his patron. In fact, the ardent linked minds with the archdruid and scryed the World Tree for good measure (normally impossible, but with this miraculous technology and a good check very possible). Yggdrasil had taken the form of a giant manta ray made of petrified wood, seeding the universe as it sailed, and looked content. Though he desperately desired the old spirit's council, the archdruid was at least heartened by evidence of his safety.

Rereading my play reports, I'm also struck by just how much the party uses rituals. I've read on these forums countless times how groups don't even touch the stuff, but our playgroup loves and relies on them.

Spurred by the quest for knowledge, the psion reached into what we like to call her 'forbidden knowledge' for more answers on the Ibha Varana. Previously, the psion came into contact with a greasy, ochre spheroid which turned out to be a protrusion of Yog-Sothoth in time/space. She was left comatose and it took the most powerful psion in the setting, her father, to twice-bend time in order to rescue her. He placed a powerful mental block afterward, however stored in the deep recesses behind that psychic wall lies the answers to untold questions, memory of caressing the infinite knowledge of the Outer God. Unfortunately, dipping into those memories risks the unknown, particularly when Yog-Sothoth is concerned.

The psion learned that the Ibha Varana were immense psionists and used a form of crystal technology native to their planet to extend their lives and philosophical conversations for millions of years at a time. They would sit for ages, conversing through constant 'songs' which also had a hypnotic property (the undead whistling seemed to have lost its potency). During even one congregation, whole epochs of their planet would pass, civilizations of lesser, simian species rise and fall, and in fact many built themselves around the Ibha Varana, so entranced with their great conversations- tending to the unmoving giants' every need, be it washing, cooling, grooming, feeding. Through great prescience, the Ibha Varana were able to predict the arrival of the Yth 65 million years before it occurred, and used that time to grow vast ships of crystal, marble, and metal circuitry. What they could not anticipate was their dependency on their planet and the crystals their race had evolved to use. After a time, new crystals were needed and a food source as abundant as the crops of their world. They turned increasingly savage, and the wisest of them feared, before long, they would devolve into short-lived walking mammoths. Though the matter of food was easily remedied by raiding verdant worlds (and eating the inhabitants if necessary), they did not solve the crystal dilemma until they realized by harnessing divinity and power of broken gods and scattered, weakened spirits that they could emulate the life-and-wisdom-expanding affects of their native crystals. Yet after countless centuries of hunting, they finally encountered an entity not quite ready to be deposited into an isochron crystal, the venomous Lyth (previously encountered). She slew the operator (the one now animated) and led to the destruction of the entire race.

But the price for such knowledge (a failed save by the psion) was a translucent, ochre orb appearing in the center of the chamber. Thanks to keen perception skills, the assassin noticed the orb first and did EVERYTHING in his power to distract and direct his love, the psion, from registering its arrival. Remember, should she remember too much of her ordeal with Yog-Sothoth, she could lose herself again (never mind her hope being all that prevented a portal to the Abyss from opening in her chest).

He successfully exited the chamber with her (the party has two portal guns, which are very, very handy), and most others followed. Though warned repeatedly, the swordmage was slow to depart. His Arcana check revealed a certain truth, that the orb was the gateway to infinite knowledge. The character always had a dark side, including a xenophobic alternate personality that wanted nothing more than to wipe Creation of all its humans. His demon lord side certainly wasn’t an improvement. Accepting the risk, he grabbed the orb.

I was torn after all the warnings, all the risk, both in and out of character, that the player went for it. Part of me loved how adventurous he was, and for that I wanted to reward him. However, the other half of me knew he’d more or less accepted the risk, whatever it might be, for a shot at this infinite knowledge. This had resulted in frying the brain of our psion, previously, and even his demonic nature did him no good against the Lovecraftian price of temptation over forbidden lore. Though I promised no save or dies, I kept coming back to it as I made my decision. Ultimately, I ran the save versus death like a sort of save-based skill challenge. He needed three successes before three failures. Natural 20s would count as 2 successes, and natural 1s count as 2 failures. He rolled a 3 and a 1.

The protective swordmage, the secret demon lord, the emperor of the eladrin was instantaneously ripped out of space/time and into the infinite embrace of The Dweller on the Threshold. He was dead. And the backlash was one of shock, blame, but ultimately resignation and a newfound wariness amongst his contemporaries. The party reconvened in the halls and began searching out for the isochron crystals, hoping to garner, at the least, knowledge which might aid them in combating Gabriel and finding planetary spheres enough to pass the archway. Discovering some new divinities, allies perhaps, couldn’t hurt, either. And the psion, almost fearing what had transpired, decided not to delve too deeply on the ‘how’ of the swordmage’s death.

I spoke with the swordmage in private messages and luckily for me he’s an easy-going and game-oriented guy. Despite losing a character he’d played for four years, he was gracious, eager, and had some exciting alternate character concepts already lined up. Thank goodness some players actually take the reality of character death, even in Epic, seriously. It can happen. He decided on a very intriguing new character and went to go build the sheet while the rest of us continued.

The psion’s player also remarked how much he liked the risk of this ‘infinite’ knowledge, Yog-Sothoth stalking her to get back into reality. Combined with the Abyssal portal in the psion’s chest, I think we’ve created a really entertaining, allegorical, and important couple of dynamics for the character moving ahead. It’s more for the DM to tie into goings on in the endgame, at least, hehe.

Out in the hall whilst the swordmage perished, the assassin has examined two sets of ancient doors crafted of a strange, black metal in the likeness of deformed heads and embracing bodies. His keen senses discerned, in actuality, only one was metal. The other was a dormant black pudding fit into the threshold in a similar likeness. He immediately withdrew, and I wonder if part of that was for the fact A. The swordmage had just died from touching something and B. When this playgroup went through the 1e Tomb of Horrors, his Halfling touched a curtain which immediately melted his face off and killed him without even a save. Sometimes you have to play on those expectations, using what you know about a character and a player.

The angel and our companion druid (an awakened wolf chosen by the Primal Spirit of the Hunt to be one of his Celestial Pack in the ceaseless stalking of all Yth, and a fellow member of the archdruid’s Circle of Ten) ultimately tracked this ooze when, while their backs were turned on the other door, it skulked off in a very horror movie ‘uh oh’ realization. They tracked it back to a whole nest of the black, cancerous blobs. True to old school sensibilities, I peppered the blobs with treasure, items left over from a few dead gods, angels, and demons, however the very shrewd angel was not tempted. She sealed the oozes away with liberal use of her ice powers after repositioning some of the ship’s paneling. The angel’s player is always good to play the character before his own wants, even though there were some nice items in that mess which he knew about (two artifacts among them). The angel had only one objective here, the reacquisition of the Gate (see earlier session notes). She already questioned the party’s preoccupation with the telescopic device and the crystals, but given there was no return tile to the watchtower, nor any other open avenues, she tolerated the exploration for what it might bring her sooner rather than later.

The warlock, risking the northern doors into a smaller chamber, found evidence of a failed ritual circle laired with three spells. Two were meant for detection and enervation, but the third was… explosive runes. POWERFUL explosive runes, linked to no less than 49 other instances of explosive runes, enough to scour any last trace of life from this entire sublevel, or ship, whichever it turned out to be (the ardent deduces the latter, the Ibha Varana ship enveloped by the Siege). The warlock thankfully defused the five runes in the circle, though failed one check and used a reroll ability provided by the aura of the psion representative of the hope and possibility she brings as Oversoul. It worked, thankfully. Though they didn’t realize it, had the explosive runes been triggered, I was prepared to deal 46d10 fire damage or half on a miss with a successful trap attack. Some would have avoided it, perhaps, or returned through destiny features, but I know the players want to save those for the actual confrontation with the Exgod (wisely so).

The side walls, both of which emanated intense divine power, had been gouged into, but with nothing but the sepulchral mineral which made the ship seem so tomblike to show for it. She correctly guessed that they had been seeking isochron crystals, and whatever was held inside of them, but that ‘hidden’ meant somewhere between dimensions, in a place that could not simply be excavated. The ardent was quick to point out that, despite the best efforts of the Exgod’s underlings (the ritual circles were good, but not godly, nor the warlock’s level of expertise) he had not uncovered the vestiges. Well, well, thought the party, an advantage.

Remembering the nature of the Ibha Varana, the psion reached out with psionics and song (throughout the campaign she has delivered many of her powers and utilities through song, and even spent resources on improving a homebrew Performance skill). The ardent assisted, and together they summoned forth quartz control panels not unlike the one on the telescopic device, save the imprints were not of squid hands, but alien snouts. Further attempts to interface with the ship proved fruitless. They were missing a biological component, which the archdruid stepped up and attempted to provide. An exciting new precedent was set for his wildshape when, with a successful Nature check, he was able to transform into another race, specifically an alien one he’d encountered several times before, another ‘psionic singer’. Through his newfound psychic song, combined with the support of the more experienced psychics, and the deft thieving of the assassin to ‘help along’ the funny, mechanical bits as they revealed themselves behind the paneling, the party unlocked the isochron chambers.

Revealed were two stunning feminine beings, Amazonian and around fourteen feet a piece, in perfect suspended animation behind the planes of giant crystals. One was clearly a goddess with a nature portfolio, while the other, from tell of the black plate and wicked-looking axe, was more aligned to war. Names were lightly etched in the crystals, Karana and Kishar respectively.

Talk of course turned to whether or not the presumed goddesses should be set free. There were clear advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, they decided to free Karana, especially since in recent campaign history the weakened former goddess of nature had been destroyed, her essence used to fuel the birth of a greater goddess with dubious benefits. This was his chance to restore a little balance to the star system and regain a powerful natural force.

She was, as you can imagine, disoriented, but quickly gained a sense of things thanks to the party and psychic imparting of knowledge. She remarked feeling so small, so finite, and so stupid for the lack of her typical omniscience. The angel took it upon herself to make a quip about fitting right in ‘with the rest of these stupid mortals’ and was immediately bitch slapped across the ship as an auto-hit. Karana was diminished, but not her pride and sense of importance.

That was a sobering moment, I realized just afterward, even as Karana stood to full height and warned the servitor (meaning angel) to mind herself with the rumble of thunder and the flash of lightning. Since the angel’s inception in a different campaign set in the same setting, she was curt, honest, oblivious to social moray, and often rude. It’s a fun quirk that she’s ported over into this game, but here I felt it had to be met with an immediate consequence. You don’t just stand there and insult a goddess, no matter her state.

Tensions eased back down, however, as the archdruid appealed to her on a number of levels. She obviously felt a connection for his strong ties with primal power, and also with our ardent, warlock, and yes even the angel (the first is a goddess in the process of reconstituting, the other two still kind of incubating). She agreed to help defeat the Exgod and battle the Yth, encouraged that her powers could return to her and that, despite the destruction of her native world, there would be a place for her in this one.

So the party is left to decide what to do about Kishar and the other, yet unseen, entities trapped in isochron crystals. The party has an impressive advantage moving ahead if they can garner a force of angry vestiges by their sides. And the Exgod, as of now, is none the wiser. Not only was he unable to access any of the crystals (his lack of psionics and primal power has proven a detriment), he has no way of scrying them thanks to one magic item on the warlock’s person.

I should note, that little trinket has been saving the party a LOT of grief, namely an amulet which shields from all forms of scrying. The Exgod is not a fool, nor is he blind, but the warlock forces a bit of both on him at the moment. The group has had a very free reign of the Siege thus far, despite the abominations summoned by the imps. The only time this wasn’t true was when the warlock, swordmage, and assassin went to treat with Orcus, leaving the rest open to scrying. Now what, if anything, the Exgod might have learned or seen during that time remains to be seen, but it was a relatively small window.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Wow. Just wow.

Thanks for posting... and I hope you all continue.

 

[Pour]

The ardent's argument that all the gods would be needed, even the ugly and evil ones, in the campaign against the Yth won out in regards to the foreboding war goddess frozen mid-swing of her axe. The ardent felt a deep-seated connection to all lost and wayward divinities, of course being one herself. There was opposition amongst the party, but the majority were in favor. She broke Kishar free.

Kishar made a defensive flourish and prepared herself to fight the group. The ardent appealed to her while the party recoiled, and Kishar's axe stopped within a hair's breadth of splitting the psychic's head open like a melon. Kishar then grabbed the ardent by the throat and lifted her off her feet. Our psion might have foiled the attack, but the ardent chose to be grabbed, allowing the conqueror-queen to process the immensity of her situation in her own way. Without warning, Kishar planted a deep, voracious kiss on the ardent's lip, biting her tongue with jagged teeth and drawing knowledge from the blood. When Kishar pulled away again, she understood, and tossed the ardent aside.

The warlock (protege of a succubus sorceress) and Kishar shared a brief moment, involving the licking of an ear and a promise. After that, Kishar agreed to join the party in their defeat of the Exgod, and the Yth afterward. Kishar seemed somehow challenged by Karana and the angel, though neither let it bother them.

The party continued their exploration of the isochron chambers, coming upon several unusual god-beings, including a cobrasaur, a giant white ape (Primal Rage, anyone?), and an eladrin with a startling likeness to the late swordmage. They released this elven god, only to discover he was no god at all, rather the swordmage's son from an alternate reality, one in which the Yth succeeded in destroying Creation in the time of his adulthood (in this reality, he's still an infant).

Just a little lore to make sense of this next bit, but the campaign largely revolves around planar gems called hearts or har'venoth in Elven, containing all the knowledge of their attributed plane, so vast as to inspire sentience. Since late Heroic, they've been a precious commodity and highly saught after by many campaign factions. They've been used and abused, by NPCs and PCs alike. Some of them seem to have their agendas. Oh, and they act as batteries for alien ships.

Anyway, in the final moments of the eladrin's system, his mother Kaylan (a half-elven princess, prophet, and former PC) enacted the "Gloriandel Contingency" or the ritual of combining select har'venoth into forming a new reality from the information stored within their limitless facets. In her ritual, she omitted the Strangeheart (Heart of the Void), hoping to create a sanctuary without threat of the Far Realm (as her grandfather Highking Gloriandel intended to do thousands of years prior). Instead, the ritual proved only to jaunt the eladrin into a reality where the Yth had not yet won, perhaps the only reality where they had not yet won. The contingency was a fool's hope. The eladrin's reality was subsequently devoured.

The eladrin had been transported millions of years into the past, then frozen in a crystal until this very moment. However, he radiated power enough to lure the Ibha Varana into snaring him alongside divine vestiges. Why? He explained this was because the soul of the ancient gold dragoness Celinduil fused with his own soul during a failed resurrection ritual (which, in the current time line, their NPC ally Kaylan is currently in the process of trying herself).

Thanking all the gods to be found by "Auntie Warlock" and other dear alternative-reality family, the hopeful, young Dragon Prince (I just like the sound of it) joined the party. The ardent and psion in particular were interested in learning more about his past and their future, hoping to garner some advantage in the days to come. And so the player who lost his swordmage introduced his new alt, which brings a decided lighter air to the war-weary and battered party. The player and I had hashed out the character several nights prior, enough to get him started at least, and though a little complex in origin, so is everything else in this campaign. If it made him happy, it made me happy. And it does have plenty of ties to the existing story, which is always my major concern, specifically endgame potential.

The next isochron chamber contained a faceless beauty with small horns, flowing purple locks, and a black, tattered dress. The crystal read "Terris-Thule" (The Yth also destroyed Norrath, it seems). The warlock and Kishar both took an interest in the goddess, which many guessed was a deity of secrets, spies, and subterfuge. The angel disapproved of her release, but then again she disapproved of every release...

Kishar and Eilessa simultaneously broke the crystal, and the former grabbed the goddess by the waist and claimed her for her own. Such was the goddess of blood, slaughter, and conquest's nature. However, claiming Terris-Thule was not such a wise move. Terris-Thule proved to be the goddess of nightmares and fear, bringing even bloody Kishar to her knees in a sudden, black-lit moment. Though the warlock used her power to delay her, Terris-Thule ultimately fled against the might of the poising party.

The psion's empathic probing revealed that Terris was, in fact, just as terrified as trembling Kishar. Her system had been destroyed. She herself had just been released after potentially millions of years in stasis. And her first interaction was one of potential slavery. Narra tracked her flight to the ethereal realm of thought, dreams, and emotions, close and yet impossibly far at the same time. She appealed to the goddess, but received no response. Kishar, humbled for the first time perhaps ever, was quiet for a long while afterward, brooding after being overwhelmed by fear.

They moved ahead, and in that time the archdruid ruminated on his experience interfacing with the Varana vessel as an psionic illumine. You see, he had learned where the crystals fed and their ropey cables and veined circuitry led: a crystal seat in a removed chamber called the Throne of H'sinn, where the aliens would sit and assume the energies of their captives. However, he was quite unwilling to share the information with the party upfront, as the potential was there to simultaneously slay all the prisoners and catapult one of their number to godhood, or perhaps something much more abominable (a new Ythlord?).

The process was all too similar to the Emperor's distillation, and he hadn't the stomach for such deviancy. Previously, the ardruid had played a pivotal role in discovering and dismantling his homeworld's emperor from hunting down those with traces of divine lineage and distilling their essence into ambrosia elixirs- with hideous, soul-destroying results for the victims. Keep in mind, these were the war crimes of the psion's "father", but more exactly her creator (she being an artificial human called a mannequin).

When stumbling upon another pentagram and more explosive runes, the cautious warlock enlisted the psion's aid in diffusing a potentially lethal, ship-wide conflagration (46d10 fire damage). However, initial difficulties only partially deactivated the enchantment before a massive necromantic spell was cast over the entire Varana vessel. The Exgod, knowing the party was somewhere in the ship but (because of the warlock's amulet) unable to pinpoint their exact location, rose whatever alien corpses resided in the ship into active service. One player coined it a carpet bombing maneuver. The Exgod knew the isochron chambers had been unlocked (the amulet's blanket scry-block was only fifty feet). More importantly, the Throne of H'sinn had been unlocked and there was the potential for him to reclaim his godhood.

Answering the necromantic call were liquid-metal alien corpses (bodaks) which rose from stasis freezers to combat the party. They had the startling ability to reflect energy attacks and possessed mutable limbs that could be fashioned into stabbing weapons. Mechanically, I had them immune to all "energy-based" ranged attacks (regardless of damage type) which they were able to reflect. Attackers rolled hits normally, but then rolled a 1dx where x was the number of available targets. After an initial foray, the party began to rethink their tactics.

The ardent was able to discern that intense cold would return them to hibernation. The archdruid tried a different strategy, managing to re-entomb many of them in the chamber they'd yet to emerge from with a Karana-bolstered wall of flourishing nature, but others across the ship raced to secure the throne. At that point, I had to provide stats for the vestiges, or at least some boon for having freed them. I really took the kid gloves off and decided Karana gave advantage on all primal attacks and damages. Kishar allowed any in Aura 3 to score critical hits on 15-20. Together, they made the archdruid a powerhouse.

Meanwhile, the angel's lodestone sensed the nearest portal lied to the south, a means of exiting the Varana ship entirely and escaping the massing bodak. It was a wise move... if there weren't something worth staying to defend or destroy. The archdruid was forced to divulge the location of the much more strategic throne north, and what it might allow. If the Exgod gained the throne, he could be back to full strength in no time. The party just couldn't allow the chance. The archdruid felt an added pang of worry, as he'd more or less revealed a secret which could radically alter the fate of anyone who dared sit the crystal chair. The race was on, bodak and party members alike making north with all haste, the assassin and the angel in the forefront...

The party ended up defeating a gathering host of bodak at the entrance to the throne's antechambe through a clever combination of cold-based, aura, and close burst attacks synergized across the NPC druid and the ardent. The warlock dominated one, making it stab itself in the face. The psion took out another. And Kishar, rushing one, proved her axe is a sweet, sweet Epic weapon which tore the bodak from existence.

The assassin cast his darkest shadow magic and slipped ahead of the others unseen (Stealth check 56 I think). Finding his way into a formidable swarm of bodak, one false move would prove his certain demise. Mercy, sensing mischief, flew in just after, using a level 25 protection against undead scroll which repelled the futuristic undead despite their most ardent wish to slay her.

The assassin found the giant-sized Throne of H'sinn, thrumming deeply and swimming with strange lights. Three isochron crystals overshadowed it, containing deities from some forgotten realm: Tempus, Ilmater, and Auril (oops, the Yth destroyed Toril as well...) Vaguely familiar with Varana technology from his meddling during the unlocking of the isochron chambers, and sensing, at long last, an escape from his eternal debt to the Grave, he leaped upon the chair and activated it.

For a good deal of Paragon and Epic, the assassin has been looking for a way to escape the unpleasant side of his Darklordship, and more importantly the inexorable hold the Dark Powers of Cadavera (Ravenloft) had over him. On a deeper level, he wanted to be the true master of his own destiny and the sole owner of his, well, soul. He'd been bred into an assassin cult, his soul split into fragments by his father to make him a more efficient killer, and throughout his life he'd known brief glimpses of happiness stained in blood and the tears of those closest to him. He'd bent all the resources of his extensive assassin order toward his true freedom and still come up short. And three times he'd been slain or cast into the Grave, his ultimate afterlife, paralyzed in total darkness, imprisoned in his mind for the promise of all eternity. He'd nearly gone mad each time, and each time he was brought back he'd lost a little of himself.

The entire ship trembled and quaked as the chair was hacked. Thirteen captured divinities were extinguished in moments (some of the revealed tokens were Mum-Ra and D'Sparil), their power feeding into the chair and the one who sat upon it. Thus began an epic struggle of wills between the Darklord and the remnants of a baker's dozen of the universe's vanquished deities. He passed two out of three saves, then made 11/13 saves afterward. In essence, the assassin won, much to all of our shock, amusement, and (for a few players) annoyance and even frustration/anger.

I give a ton of credit to the assassin's player for taking the initiative, playing the character, and being pro-active- risking really, really tough odds to see his character reach his ambition. He actually pulled it off! One player felt that kind of action a betrayal and didn't like what the player had done. Another actually left the chat room before he lost his temper. Everyone else cheered him on, myself included. Judge as you like, I suppose.

And so the assassin has been obviously removed from the party, though I'm still weighing the ramifications of a living god now in the Siege to oppose, among others, the Exgod and perhaps Orcus as well. It could go a lot of ways. I've got plenty to work with, in any case. The player is already working up some cool alternate character ideas.

With anger, fear, and great trepidation, all the party knew what had happened as the Varana's cables began to burst and the circuitry overloaded. The assassin had reached apotheosis. The Exgod, too, knew of the crippling turn of events, and one of any number of sources began to dismantle the ship in thunderous tremors. The party's only avenue then was south, to the portal, and back to the Siege proper.

The psion, the assassin's love, was hit hardest by the apparent abandonment. And the Abyssal portal in her chest roiled as her hope faltered, burning away the paltry gauze wrapping. Dun, dun, dunnnnn!