Pathfinder 1E I'm in over my head... Need some help!

[koesherbacon]

Hey all! I'm in over my head in a campaign I'm running and could use some help. I had a brilliant idea that on retrospect may not have been the best. Here's what's happened...

My PCs saved a bunch of Halflings from Gnoll slavers. While doing so, the Aasimar Paladin of Iomedae found an altar to Lamashtu and destroyed it. Then, as a group, they defeated two Gnoll Clerics of Lamashtu in two separate encounters. Both times, the Paladin took their unholy symbols after distributing the rest loot between each other. After rescuing the Halflings they went back to town. There, the Paladin, with the help of the other PCs, went to the temple of Iomedae and performed a ritual to consecrate those unholy symbols.

Lamashtu took offense to the Paladin's actions and sent an avatar to kill the PCs for defacing her holy symbols and altar. They defeated the avatar without difficulty so Lamashtu punished them once again with an ominous warning that only the Paladin could hear:

"You may have defeated my children, but you will never be safe.
Prepare yourselves for the wraith of The Mother of Monsters.
Enjoy tonight’s sunset for it will be your last!"​

​

At first they thought it was an empty threat. That night however, the sun set as usual, but the following morning never rose. It's now been 5 days, and the sun still has not rose.

I'm not quite sure where I should go from there. Obviously, "turning on the sun" is their next mission and over all campaign arch. But how exactly should they go about doing it? I'd love to hear any suggestions since I'm a little more than stumped. I really like the idea of having the PCs find a way to bring back the sun, as it's pretty unique and the group really liked it when the sun set and never rose again.

Right now, I think that Lamashtu has ripped the world from its usual place in the Material Plane and placed it in the Plane of Shadow. I'm not sure if that's a good idea or if there's something else that might work better.

Thanks so much, as I said, I'm a little in over my head so any suggestions, input or what have you will be great!

 

[axp_dave]

Instead of an epic quest to restore the sun, maybe the PC's were instead transported to an alternative prime material plane or moved to a shadow like plane. That might be a little easier to resolve.

If you want a way to restore the sun, my thought would to not so much focus on the physical mechanics, but instead of a ritual that would solve the issue. i.e the sun's power was diminished or blocked by a part of the shadow plane being placed between the world and sun. Now the PC's must find an artifact to dispel the magic.

Dave

 

[Rune]

Sounds fun, but what is the sun in your campaign? Is it a ball of flaming gas? Is it a god in a chariot? A portal to the Positive Energy Plane?

 

[koesherbacon]

That's a good point. I'm liking the idea that it's a portal to the Positive Energy Plane. Where can we go from there?

 

[Jester David]

Well, if the sun is a portal, maybe she closed it. Or shielded an area around the party so it's not the whole world, just a sphere around them. They bring night with them (which won't make them too popular with farmers).

The two options to fix would be to appeal for forgiveness or try and win the favour of a different god to intercede.

 

[Razjah]

I think this makes a great set up. You have a constant night, when many feared monsters are not nearly as hindered as the pc races. A ritual to return the sun (whatever that happens to be for the game world) is probably the best way to do it. Perhaps you can break the ritual up and have the PCs restore twilight conditions. Then they may get a couple hours of light. Finally they restore the balance between night and day.

You could use medieval thinking about the earth being the center of the universe, the sun and moon hold each other in balance. The string was cut, which is causing the lasting darkness. The ritual may restore that balance, allowing night and day to wax and wane with the seasons.

 

[koesherbacon]

Thanks for the compliment, Razja!

I love all those ideas. Using multiple artifacts and rituals to bring the world from perpetual darkness to twilight conditions is great. Then the PCs will try to find a second artifact to bring it back to light for a few precious hours a day, and finally a third to bring it back to normal. That's a fantastic idea I'll definitely use!

Thanks sooooooo much for these suggestions!

I could always use some more!

 

[Razjah]

You could always add some more stuff. Like the constant night is allowing the Plane of Shadow to bleed into the Prime Material Plane. As long as this bleed effect is in place, the rituals to restore the sun won't work. First the party needs to find and destroy devices allowing the Plane of Shadow to come to this world. (This is partially based on the Invasion block books from Magic: the Gathering)


The one thing I always found problematic with the d20 system is the scaling of threats. Stuff that is threatening levels 1-5 is no longer relevant later. I prefer using the E6 System which allows threats to stay relevant the whole time, and helps allow for more creative solutions to problems. Using E6 or E8 (many prefer E8 for Pathfinder) will help stop the issue of the bad guys getting better at each ritual. Sure having the ritual site get attacked harder each time makes sense, but the enemies getting better or having "elite" units all of a sudden doesn't make much sense to me as a player or GM.

Play what you like, I'm just giving ideas.

 

[BriarMonkey]

An alternate line of thought to that of having the balance of day/night or sun/moon go out of kilter is that the town and its immediate surrounds were actually translocated.

In keeping with her threat, she relocated the PCs and their town to a demiplane trapped in a permament twilight, or nightime, cycle. Here, she can take her time and enact vengance upon those who wronged her and her followers.

This gives you a few different avenues. For one, being a demiplane, the environment is self contained. You can make it as big or small as you want, and it can be in any form as you want. You can make it like a gnoll infested Transylvania if you wanted to. Time can pass back on the prime material slower, faster, or at the same rate - which could put added pressure on them getting back in a timely manner (which they may or may not know).

As for the PCs getting back to their home plane, it will take some investigative work - but there would be some things to handle - such as whether the Paladin still had contact with their god or not. But here, like with some of the other suggestions, there could be keys, artifacts, that could be used to undo the demiplane and return the contents to their places of origin.

Anyway, it's just more food for thought.

 

[Loonook]

Has all life stopped at this point? Because five days without a sun is approaching the end game for even most prepared life forms on most planets.

Slainte,

-Loonook.