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Incursion: How to kill Mordenkainen?
- Thread starter jeffers
- Start date
jeffers
First Post
Thank you...
...for all the replies. Some useful... some not. (You know who you are...)
A lively discussion to be sure. Yeah, I think all the big wigs will be busy fighting the Gith (or others that have taken this opprotunity to attack) in other parts of the world. As for the deities... well, similar problem as to why the good gods don't kill all the evil people in the world... they just don't.
The Githyanki are just the latest threat and test to a world they've seen change time and again. It will pass. Gods have their hands full with other things... like Epic Level deity wanna-be's and fighting other gods... who has time to fend off a buncha lemony sword-swinging astral goof-balls? That's why they have worshippers.
As for the other guys, Circle of eight and the like, they'll be inconvenienced a-plenty by plans laid down years ago to do just that. Darn. Looks like its up to the PCs again!
...for all the replies. Some useful... some not. (You know who you are...)
A lively discussion to be sure. Yeah, I think all the big wigs will be busy fighting the Gith (or others that have taken this opprotunity to attack) in other parts of the world. As for the deities... well, similar problem as to why the good gods don't kill all the evil people in the world... they just don't.
The Githyanki are just the latest threat and test to a world they've seen change time and again. It will pass. Gods have their hands full with other things... like Epic Level deity wanna-be's and fighting other gods... who has time to fend off a buncha lemony sword-swinging astral goof-balls? That's why they have worshippers.
As for the other guys, Circle of eight and the like, they'll be inconvenienced a-plenty by plans laid down years ago to do just that. Darn. Looks like its up to the PCs again!
Nifft
Penguin Herder
Consider an Epic Time Hop effect that shunts him -- or his whole personal demi-plane -- 7 days or weeks into the future.
Thus, he's not dead, but the party could help him by disrupting the ambush that awaits him (in the future). And, it's psionic in flavor, so it fits the alien Gith-ness.
-- N
Thus, he's not dead, but the party could help him by disrupting the ambush that awaits him (in the future). And, it's psionic in flavor, so it fits the alien Gith-ness.
-- N
Calico_Jack73
First Post
Dragon Mage said:
What about using that creature from the Forgotten Realms that Bane used to keep Mystra on a leash? I can't remember the name (starts with a "V") but it looks like a reddish cloud filled with eyes and mouths. The Githyanki are Plane Hoppers so let them swing by Faerun on the way to Greyhawk to pick up that bad boy. You can find the stats in Monsters of Faerun. By the way, I thought that the Astral Dreadnought was unique in that there is only one in known existence. A bunch of Beholders might be another option.
Perhaps the Lich Queen herself casts Magic Jar on him to keep his soul from escaping to one of his clones. Soul imprisonment seems to be the best answer.
Last edited:
Calico_Jack73
First Post
Neo said:Have one of the Githyanki vessels land on him... you can have his booted feet sticking out the side... cue the halflings singing the wicked mage is dead... hmmm Deja Vu
Send a few Astiraxs from Midnight to chew on him for a while...
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Why do you even need him out of the picture ?
This has the drawback of putting one of the settings' trademarks out of the game. Your players may resent you for this far more than you think.
You have other options :
- He is fighting other threats
- The invasion is so great that he cannot do everything himself, and can only concentrate on some areas, rather than the whole world (there is only so much one person or god can do, even at epic levels). That leaves you all the space you want for your PCs. That is what I would do.
- Or : maybe he has a PACT with them. Maybe he is one of their allies. Maybe he has even set them up as pawns as a prelude to an even worse event. Maybe he wants a githyanki dictator to rule the Flanaess, so they take the brunt when Tharizdun hellish armies break through the barrier of the gods.
Besides, assuming that Mordenkainen and the Co8 would automatically try to stop anything happening to GH is very wrong in my opinion. Just because they have done it before is not an answer. They might have had ulterior motives.
This has the drawback of putting one of the settings' trademarks out of the game. Your players may resent you for this far more than you think.
You have other options :
- He is fighting other threats
- The invasion is so great that he cannot do everything himself, and can only concentrate on some areas, rather than the whole world (there is only so much one person or god can do, even at epic levels). That leaves you all the space you want for your PCs. That is what I would do.
- Or : maybe he has a PACT with them. Maybe he is one of their allies. Maybe he has even set them up as pawns as a prelude to an even worse event. Maybe he wants a githyanki dictator to rule the Flanaess, so they take the brunt when Tharizdun hellish armies break through the barrier of the gods.
Besides, assuming that Mordenkainen and the Co8 would automatically try to stop anything happening to GH is very wrong in my opinion. Just because they have done it before is not an answer. They might have had ulterior motives.
simmo
First Post
The question that came to mind right away upon reading the first post was: how would the Githyanki deal with Mordenkainen and the others?
They'd most likely have planned this Invasion for a long time and will have developed some good strategies for dealing with Mordenkainen et al. To increase the chances of success for the Invasion they probably carried out their plan at the very beginning of the attack. By disabling/eliminating a strong source of opposition their Invasion has a greater chance of succeeding.
The exact details of what happened to Mordenkainen and the others can be left vague. The PCs hear that something bad happened to them and are not sure if they're dead or not. This gives the PCs the choice of trying to stop the Invasion on their own or to look for Mordenkainen and risk having him 'steal their thunder' in the grand finale. If afterwards you want to restore the high-ups from Greyhawk then that can be easily done (for example they were trapped in a prison demi-plane and were unable to act during the Invasion).
They'd most likely have planned this Invasion for a long time and will have developed some good strategies for dealing with Mordenkainen et al. To increase the chances of success for the Invasion they probably carried out their plan at the very beginning of the attack. By disabling/eliminating a strong source of opposition their Invasion has a greater chance of succeeding.
The exact details of what happened to Mordenkainen and the others can be left vague. The PCs hear that something bad happened to them and are not sure if they're dead or not. This gives the PCs the choice of trying to stop the Invasion on their own or to look for Mordenkainen and risk having him 'steal their thunder' in the grand finale. If afterwards you want to restore the high-ups from Greyhawk then that can be easily done (for example they were trapped in a prison demi-plane and were unable to act during the Invasion).
Klaus
First Post
Okay, here's my idea:
The Lich-Queen has a pact with Tiamat for quite some time. So she sends a squad of red dragons and gythianki warriors to deal with Mordenkainen (having divined where he'd be at the moment). Even though his Staff of Fire is useless against the dragons, he rains cold spells on them, and wipes out about a dozen dragons.
Of course, such a great loss of draconic life won't go unnoticed by Tiamat, who demands an explanation. Mordenkainen has to present himself before her, in Avernus, and while he's gone, the invasion can take place.
By sending several githyanki warriors to certain death, the Lich-Queen assured that Tiamat wouldn't blame _her_ for the dragons' deaths, thus playing two very powerful forces against one another.
And Mordenkainen can't afford having a Dragon Deity coming to Oerth to wreak her vengeance. So he will go before her in an official capacity and explanations/negotiations will take several days.
Of course, that leaves the githyanki without red dragons for the invasion, which will have them turn to... Faluzure, lord of the shadow dragons! (tan-dan-daaaaaam!)
Or maybe Garyx, lord of draconic fire (from Draconomicon).
The Lich-Queen has a pact with Tiamat for quite some time. So she sends a squad of red dragons and gythianki warriors to deal with Mordenkainen (having divined where he'd be at the moment). Even though his Staff of Fire is useless against the dragons, he rains cold spells on them, and wipes out about a dozen dragons.
Of course, such a great loss of draconic life won't go unnoticed by Tiamat, who demands an explanation. Mordenkainen has to present himself before her, in Avernus, and while he's gone, the invasion can take place.
By sending several githyanki warriors to certain death, the Lich-Queen assured that Tiamat wouldn't blame _her_ for the dragons' deaths, thus playing two very powerful forces against one another.
And Mordenkainen can't afford having a Dragon Deity coming to Oerth to wreak her vengeance. So he will go before her in an official capacity and explanations/negotiations will take several days.
Of course, that leaves the githyanki without red dragons for the invasion, which will have them turn to... Faluzure, lord of the shadow dragons! (tan-dan-daaaaaam!)
Or maybe Garyx, lord of draconic fire (from Draconomicon).
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