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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pour" data-source="post: 6117750" data-attributes="member: 59411">Tuesday night my players reached level 25.I’m running a modified Fane of the Heresiarch mixed with the final chapter of Tomb of Horrors and my own content to create an Epic dungeon-adventure called “The Purgatory Siege”.  While I appreciate the fourthcore philosophy (I use the nightmare damage chart instead of the MM3 math, for instance), I’ve opted to remove all save vs. death effects and instead work with something called necropotence (the module itself calls it blight).Necropotence: The Siege is full of corrupting influences that wither the flesh and defile the spirit. To that end, many monster attacks, traps, and other hazards will inflict one or more points of necropotence. You can sustain a number of points of necropotence equal to 6 + your Wisdom or Charisma modifier, whichever is greater. If your necropotence total reaches or exceeds this limit, you die, melting away into bubbling black ichor. The Remove Affliction ritual can be used to cleanse 5 points of necropotence from an affected character. Combined with forced death saves, healing surge drain, massive damage, severing of all long distance communication and teleportation, and a shortage of time, I’ve achieved a satisfying mood/tone/pace. I’m not against extended rests, but there will be consequences for taking them, likely an increased difficulty for the remainder of the dungeon (both to represent the delay and to make up for the party’s resources replenishing).BackgroundThe Purgatory Siege is a glorified dam set on top of the River of Souls, preventing any who die from reaching their appropriate eternity. This lack of fresh soulstuff in turn threatens to extinguish the sun due to setting-specific cosmology. If that happens, it’s game over.The Siege also provides a PC the opportunity to achieve her game-long ambition.  She is a fallen angel of death (refluffed Deva Bladesinger with a fly speed and necrotic resistance) that once attempted to overthrow her death god for suspected aberrant corruption and failed miserably. She has spent time over late Paragon and early Epic doing solo and small-group side-games meeting objectives related to this goal, things like regaining the respect of those angels she took with her in the fall, commissioning a siege-worthy force (a machine army not unlike 40k Necron), and in the main game acquiring worthy allies (the party) to make a second go.After a jaunt in the City of Brass, she also managed to acquire the death god’s divine spark. She technically could be considered the new goddess of death, still slowly coming into her power.  I liken her predicament to being a displaced queen without a crown, throne, or country. The ex-god still holds all the territory, minions, and effects of godhood, including his most prized possession: The Gate, which all judged souls must pass before entering Heaven or Hell.Given an aberrant invasion menacing the campaign in the next few months, there is no time to just ‘wait it out’ until her apotheosis is complete. Similarly, there is no time to lay siege to the battlements for what could be years. They need to muster their armies as a grand distraction, then use the rituals, items, and alien technology available to them (that’s a whole different thread post) to infiltrate the fortress.Play ReportWe began by drawing rumor cards, customized for the Siege. Players were a mix of confused and unsettled. The rumors are all cryptic and do not allow for additional lore checks, and my group is not used to playing a game with so many puzzles, traps, keys, clues, and dungoneering. They took it in stride, and began to appreciate the rumors the deeper we went.After the party launched their armies, we moved to a skill challenge for infiltrating the Siege. I’ve tried to keep the “fail forward” philosophy in mind when it comes to skill challenges, having enjoyed the momentum of Trail of Cthulhu and 13[SUP]th[/SUP] Age. Given these are Epic characters and they had enough to deal with on the inside, I decided determine the conditions in which the party would arrive by marking them on a range from total success (completely undetected), partial success, partial failure, and total failure (a waiting party of enemies). Despite two Impossible DCs thrown in (+10 from Hard checks), the party managed to slide in with a total success. They entered via a combination of varied rituals and the deft manipulation of the alien ship our PC psion controls.Once in the watchtower, the party spent time discerning portals, sigils, faint magics, and a strange central device called the Standing Stone which mapped a solar system and constellations unfamiliar to the party. Some thievery and discussion discerned six planet-sized spheres were required to unlock a portal to the Gate.Through prolonged speculation, tinkering, and lore checks, they also managed to discern that the stone depicted their solar system prior to the Old Gods which were, by all modern doctrine, the first and only creators. However, the PC ardent had begun suspecting that the phenomenon of life was almost generational, and that the coming of the aberrations marked the death of a current pantheon and all the worlds and civilizations tied to it. There was a balance to this, for other stars existed elsewhere with new gods, worlds, races, and civilizations. They, in turn, spawned new stars and Life continued on. Unfortunately, back in mid-Paragon the stars began blinking out as their last light reached the worlds, and by Epic there wasn’t a single star left in the night sky. From everything the PCs have gathered, their solar system is the last occurrence of life in the universe. When it is gone, the Void is all-encompassing forever more.Faced with either taking stairs down into the bowels of the Siege, or using a sparking tile suffused with teleportation magics, the party chose the more mundane of the two. A natural 20 on trap detecting avoided what could have been several bad spills. They eventually reached the bottom of the stair and the PC witch cast a ritual from Goodman Games' Book of Rituals, the one that allowed you to summon forth yourself one hour in the future. I love the challenge that places on the DM, balancing what to tell and not tell. Keeping in mind the future is a mess of branching paths, I gave them a few clues as to what might lurk in the next chamber, and warned the PC druid he would die if he entered the confessional. That was enough to set the tone moving ahead.Within the Bleak Seminary, the party began questioning the demonic undertones of the Siege, things like stretched-flesh archways and pits of boiling blood. The statue of Anat, Orcus’ lover and sister, a mosaic of a succubus being ravaged by three, beastly mariliths, as well as the imps tending the books only added to their demonic suspicions. They managed to solve a multistep puzzle and unlock six ritual books that would enable them to summon two planetary spheres upon the Altar of the Seven World Trees somewhere in the complex.They also found the dreaded confessional, with an undead confessor waiting in the box and beckoning for one to confess their sins. In the Fane, an improper confession amounts to instant death in one of those boiling blood pits. I was going to dish out some necropotence, however I gave special consideration when the PC swordmage stepped in. He’s currently in the midst of transforming into a demon prince through his own Epic storyline and it didn’t quite fit to treat him like the rest. The confessor, an acolyte of Orcus, asked him what he was sorry for. The PC started with something a good man might seek forgiveness for, but ultimately realized that he wasn’t being genuine, and that his true regret was not being able to shed these weaklings (PCs) and take revenge on his enemies as a true demonic lord. That earned him the confessor’s favor and a token of Orcus’ sympathy (a rerolling magic item). He would also answer one question, however the PC had gotten so involved with his confession he forgot some of the more pertinent questions that probably should have been asked and asked something trivial instead. So it goes.Meanwhile, the PC ardent pissed off the imps when she began carelessly flinging books in search of more clues, and in their little rages grabbed at a very unusual book off an elevated lectern. Magic missiles ensured the imps dropped their cargo, and they darted off into other corners of the dungeon (truthfully to go get some muscle, though the PCs haven’t felt the brunt of that yet).The PC assassin, PC fallen angel, and PC psion examined the book, only to discover it was original copy of The Necronomicon Ex Mortis. The PC assassin, also a Darklord (the Ravenloft kind), saw potential, but the psion, and most especially the fallen angel (who despises necromancy and all perversions of the natural order of death and life) saw things differently. Before either could act, the assassin used some superior smoke-and-mirrors and a menacing stealth check to slip into the seminary shadows. He learned the secret of unlocking the book before returning to the group feigning disinterest (and yet keeping it on his person). The fallen angel decided to deal with it later, kind of in the middle of sieging and all. The psion, the assassin’s love interest, ultimately decided to trust him with it.The party then spent the next hour pouring over the ritual tomes looking to piece together the ceremony for summoning the two planets on the altar, while the others looked through the seminary books and earned a new rumor each. They also learned a little about the gods that existed in the old solar system, prior to their “Old Gods”. They were called the Merciless, and it seemed people worshipped them to placate their pettiness and wrath. I decided to use the Fourthcore gods Kishar, Kotaresh, Lyth, Asur-Segt, Naia, Marduk, Teurama, and Euryale for this because they really are so savage and cool. I’ve also devised a little twist involving their defeat which I’ll reveal in future sessions (and which leads to an even greater potential asset).The angel and the swordmage learned the same reliable rumor stating that the suspect tile back at the watchtower may in fact be a second way to the Gate. They were willing to try it once the party was ready.And let us not forget our assassin, who used the time to slip away and read some of the Necronomicon- which is never, ever good. I plan to tally up his readings and openings of the book, though I’m not sure for what. There is a lot going on in the Siege, various factions they’ve only begun to discover. I think the book could play a major role.Next GameThe imps return with reinforcements, marking the first fight of the Siege. I want to build some confidence, so it won’t be terribly hard, a few gruesome-looking, low hp, low defense monsters with strong attack modifiers and considerable damage. Then the imps will attempt a second escape, and hopefully the PCs decide to intercept them this time.From there I expect the party, ritual for summoning the spheres in hand, will try and use the tile in the watchtower as a short cut. Despite being a reliable rumor, the information is false. It will take them to the observatory, and provide the opportunity to earn treasure and learn about several hidden sites for future adventures, such as the location of other alien ships.  ReflectionThe session was fun. The pace was slower than our normal games, but I liked the tone and tension. Many were afraid of touching things unnecessarily, especially odd statues or suspect murals, when they’re usually poking and prodding every little thing. That’s partially what I was hoping for. When push came to shove, however, players made choices. They were never paralyzed, just wary.So far, they’ve avoided the pitfalls and learned lore and information pertinent to the immediate game, the wider game, and just the setting as a whole. All of this has also given me ideas on how to progress the game and the dungeon. I’ve already made some changes.</blockquote>

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