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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pour" data-source="post: 6123948" data-attributes="member: 59411">Last we left, the party split.Our warlock, swordmage, and assassin followed the Confessor of Orcus through a portal and to a different part of the Siege. While I've locked down all teleportation and communication outside of the fortress, I've tried to sustain the value of many of their rituals within the Siege interior. It would make sense the other factions within the Siege would also utilize this limited utility (local teleports, Sendings, etc). After a quick pep talk, they warily met 'detained' Orcus. There had to be a reason the prince had bothered to treat with mortals at all, why he didn't just kill their angel, steal her death spark, and take the fight directly to the Exgod himself. They found the answer quickly enough: I modified <a href="http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/308/7/9/legend_of_the_cryptids_demon_dude_ver_1_by_davidrapozaart-d5jyye0.jpg" target="_blank">Orcus</a> some, giving him an aura 6 that inflicts 30 necrotic damage, so the PCs were forced to keep at a distance. I also have a running thread throughout the game that the very utterance of Abyssal is painful to hear, and usually causes some sort of bleeding through tear ducts or pores. This was magnified with the big guy here.Negotiations were relatively straightforward. There was really only the demon's offer of alliance on the table, and the party was lucky to get him to divulge one or two of his intentions before growing tired of their prying and demanding an answer. They would retrieve Orcus's prized skull (they don't know its purpose quite yet, but it obviously holds power for the prince) in return for two planetary spheres and Orcus's aid in the battle against the Exgod. The three took council in an antechamber, deciding to accept the offer rather than risk facing the demon lord undermanned and in unfamiliar surrounds. They also caught a glimpse of Orcus's genitals when they reentered the durance to find him free of his bonds, crouching by the doorway and washing them all in necrotic energy in his eagerness for an answer. Yikes. I'd post the description, but it breaks board policies. I try to do every demon in a bombastic way, but Orcus is one of the very baddest princes in the Abyss. Throughout the campaign, I've followed a thematic thread of having demons' presences cause bad things to happen. For a relatively minor vrock earlier in the game, things would slowly decay in its line of effect, mundane items, scrolls, clothing, metal. For a more powerful demon later in the game, bugs would surface in unexpected places and food would perish. For Orcus, I took out the stops and had all kinds of unhygienic stuff automatically occur to the PCs, including tasting maggots in the back of their throats, developing legions on their lips, losing clumps of their hair, having their teeth and fingernails loosen, and ultimately feeling VERY uncomfortable sensations and added weight in their undergarments (giant tape worms). These usually occurred when Orcus emoted, for instance the maggots happened when the demon lord licked his own lips. Suffice to say, when those three returned to the watchtower, each of them stripped and thanked all the gods for the Fastidiousness ritual. Meanwhile, the archdruid, bladesinger, ardent, psion, and companion druid pressed on. The angel's Analyze Portal ritual determined the trident-etched tile led to a place called the Starcellar, a sort of cthonic observatory. What a cool ritual to allow me to give some background via the portal creator and the last creature through. The Exgod had, of course, built this tile, though shaped might have been a more apt word (remember, the Siege itself was really an alien ship that keyed off of the subliminal paradigms of its helmsman and joined them with its demonic nature). The last one to use the tile was the resurrected vestige of one of the fallen gods of an older Creation (perhaps one of the previously-mentioned Merciless, or something older still) into an exarch. Though the Exgod's loss of true divinity had weakened this creature, underestimating it would just be stupid in this place. So they didn't, rather prepared themselves for an attack just as soon as they passed.I have to interject that creating this dungeon complex around the dead, including the gods, demons, and angels from across the universe's infinite extinguished stars and swallowed worlds, has allowed a lot of room for creativity and spontaneity to blossom. I'm glad I opted this route. I could conceivably introduce just about anything within the context of this place and have it still fit within the grander scheme of my setting, without breaking the campaign. I've already introduced fourthcore gods. I have a mind to stretch even further...They were not attacked straight away in the Starceller, though they were taken aback by the place, an hemispheric observatory of alien architecture and design, with dull black-gray vaults inundated with circuitry and a loom-like ceiling of cyberoptics. Most of these circuits were burned out, save one blue knot and adjoining tributaries and glowing offshoots. They came to realize it represented their solar system, while the ceiling represented the known universe. However, the element which really drew their attention was the telescope, or perhaps cannon, what we ended up calling simply "the device" or "the machine". A giant, pallid corpse of some alien creature with an elephantine snout and huge, octopus hands strewed fused to the chair and console (okay, okay, I'd watched Prometheus the night before, sue me). There was a doorway leading out, but glistening strands of circuitry stretched across the opening.Considerable investigation, speculation, and trial-and-error commenced. Also, the Orcus party rejoined the others around this time. I think I'll leave it here for now and continue tomorrow with the conclusion.</blockquote>

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