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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pour" data-source="post: 5205082" data-attributes="member: 59411">The Last VestigeA Dungeons & Dragons Adventure for Evil Epic CharactersBackground:Decades ago, the archfiend Baalzebul tried to overthrow Asmodeus, God of Hell. He was discovered and mercilessly punished. Asmodeus transmogrified the once-imposing Lord of Flies into a putrid, pale and offal-trailing slug. He has wallowed ever since, lamenting his loss and the cruel japes of his rivals Mephistopheles and Dispater, searching for a way to regain Asmodeus' favor (and thusly his old persona). At long last, he's found a way. One last vestige of He Who Was, the god whose name has since been erased from history, under whom Asmodeus, Baalzebul and all the other fallen angels served before their ultimate betrayal, escaped destruction. The vestige dwells on the crystal isle of Gloryda, in a vessel known as the Crystal Sepulcher wherein he slowly gathers divine essence from across the Astral Sea in hopes of one day reconstituting himself and enacting revenge on his traitorous former servants. If Baalzebul can capture this last vestige for Asmodeus, or at the very least destroy him, he'll surely be granted his former glory. There are, of course, a few small snags. For one, the way to Gloryda is not an easy one, and the only portal Baalzebul knows of is tangled in the depths of the Demonweb Pits with Lolth's many other treasured doors. And once Gloryda is reached, one must contend with a dominion of angels and devas, chief among them the Virgin Bride, the vestige's prophet destined to one day bare He Who Is Reborn. INTRODUCTION1. Barbatos, one of Baeelzebub's most trusted lieutenants, meets with the group in the form of an old, worm-ridden wretch with a white beard that drags six feet behind him (perhaps after a particularly impressive adventure). He uses no false names, nor attempts any trickery, quite direct with his proposition and quite clear it comes from Baalzebul himself. The PCs' reputations have traveled as far down as Maladomini, and the Lord of the Seventh is willing to offer them 'Get Out of Hell Free' cards for when their inevitable judgements come IF they accept a proposition to seduce a prophet and retrieve the essence inside a sacred crystal container.    >> Alternatively, if there is a bard or a high Charisma character, Baalzebul might also find reason to hire them besides just the generic 'I need qualified, evil professionals'. Infernal warlocks and worshipers of Asmodeus are also quite handy. > The interested party need only say the word and they're transported onto the Road of Perdition, a vast marble highway lined with massive, grotesque statuary. A white fly annoys the heck out of the prettiest party member, then leads the party into Maladomini with all its miles-wide caverns and sprawling, polluted ruins. Unnerving enough, the fly eventually brings them to screechy fiddling, high laughter and even higher screams, and smells both perfumed and foul, marking an approach on The Carnival Macabre. History or Arcana checks reveal this is a dangerous baccanal where things illegal even in Hell are trafficked, and pleasure and pain are constantly redefined and taken to new extremes. ACT I: The Carnival Macabre2. Barbatos explains a political entanglement the players would be perfect for, and which will advance them closer to their goals. Barbatos had been visiting the carnival often, gathering information on Gloryda from a former rider of the Astral Sea, an elder mercury dragon Silikoras. He'd been dragged to the carnival a prisoner against his will and now, many years later, remains a prisoner of his choosing. Drug, sex and greed-addled, he'd exhausted his hoard centuries ago, and got to selling information and performing odd jobs. Barbatos found the dragon easily plied for information, but was unable to secure the exact location of the Crystal Isles or the doorway in the Demonweb Pits before a corruption devil named Miminix aquired the mercury dragon as a slave. He bleeds the creature now, using its metallic blood to produce an insanity-inducing drug called Crazesilver. Miminix allows no one audience with the dragon, and Silikoras is much too weak to talk otherwise, truthfully on the verge of death (which Miminix wouldn't mind selling the hide and parts anyway). Given this corruption devil is a powerful member of the carnival and in favor with Asmodeus, Baalzelbul cannot outrightly move against him, nor does he want to spoil his chance at redemption by divulging to the Prince of Evil how important the dragon's information really is. However a party such as the players, coming into the carnival like many dark souls do, might find themselves pitted against Miminix, and find little choice but to slay him. If done secretly enough, or in self-defense, there's little chance Asmodeus would seek restitution. Alternatively, Miminix is a notorious gambler. He's not above betting anything, including dragons, if the stakes are sweet enough.Either using his love of gambling as bait to lure him into a trap, or as a legitimate means to win back Silikoras's freedom, Barbatos offers them a gift. Loaded dice, to always roll a win, and an identical set of regular dice, left entirely to chance. If the party is slick enough, they can use the combination to seem convincing, but still win out in a pinch. Alternatively, they could get caught as face a slew of furious betters. This likely depends on a number of rolls involving Thievery, Perception, Stealth and Bluff, as part of a skill challenge in games leading up to and then including Miminix. Barbatos would have departed long before the games, unable to be within a league of the events or else draw suspicion. So the players are truly off the leash, more or less stuck in Hell, or obligated to remain there. Before he goes, he does offer one last set of gifts, an ebon fly for each party member, and a particularly intricate Lord of Ebon Flies, which, if summoned, is a fly the size of an elephant meant to drain the weakened sepulcher dry of the vestige.When Silikoras is eventually freed, he'd offer specifics on the location of the portal in the Demonweb, and then the path to Gloryda. Were he not so weak or pathetically addicted to the depravity, he might have even offered to go with them.ACT II: The Demonweb Pits3. The players enter the Demonweb Pits, where they descend the seemingly endless, web-vexed fall of the 666th layer of the Abyss. The players either:    a. Fight their way through several strands, a direct and difficult series of encounters.    b. Sneak their way as far as they can, a difficult series of skill challenges pitting the party against some of their most difficult Stealth tests they've ever undertaken (walking the webs without disturbing them, avoiding eight times eight thousand spider's eyes, etc).In either instance, using the ebon flies to bypass many of the webs is preferred, and, for a particularly crafty player, purposefully crashing one of the ebon flies against a portion of the web creates an irresistible vibration that draws all spider creatures, and with a little added commotion drow and demon guardians as well.4. The final Demonweb encounter is with one of Lolth's lesser exarchs is decided through skill challenge and encounter. The Weaver of Ways, a trapdoor spider of cosmic proportions, draws strands from the various planes and threads them into doors, to spread the agenda and worship of her lady. If the party has any ebon flies left, they can use them to distract and daze the exarch, gain combat advantage, and other various advantages depending on player creativity. ACT III: Gloryda5. In the Crystal Isles, various motes of lush, verdant wilderness with mountain-sized shards of vary-colored crystals drift in the Astral Sea. On the largest isle grows a city of crystal, amidst rainbow blooms and dew-kissed tropical flora, Gloryda. The last vestige, in its ages of reconstitution, incidentally drew all manner of beauty and power to it, among them various dragons, angels and devas. They've settled this edenic paradise, instinctively protective of the crystal sepulcher at its heart. One among them, the deva known only as the Virgin Bride, believing herself a reincarnation of one of his slain angels, began a faith around the vestige. This, too, serves to empower the former god, and offers a fair amount of protection.The players have numerous options for infiltrating the city, more than likely dependent on some amount of Bluff or Stealth. A direct siege would be ill-advised, especially considering the task of appearing in some way friendly, and seducing the Virgin Bride. 6. Once in the city, and keeping up their guises, they must meet with the Virgin Bride. Any number of excused could do, or a stealth infiltration of the Prismatic Temple, wherein the sepulcher rests. Attempts to draw the essence out of the sepulcher will prove impossible, and may draw guards. The floating coffin is glassy and transparent, with a mystical glow in the center. The Virgin Bride looks into it often, talks with it, draws strength and gives strength to it. The relationship it and the vestige have with the prophet and the following are revealed through Religion, Arcana or prolonged observation to be symbiotic. In order to weaken the sepulcher enough to draw the vestige out or destroy it, the party must corrupt the prophet and the faith. Thus begins another fun and largely free-form task, a collection of skill challenges to seduce the virgin or discredit the upstanding members of the faith, encounters to assassinate or kidnap key opponents or stumbling blocks. 7. Eventually the prophet can be seduced, and she will betray her vows to the vestige to lay with one or more of the players. The faith will be rattled enough, but through further meddling may collapse entirely. It could grow as ugly as riots and the destruction of Gloryda, but what's certain is the Crystal Sepulcher will grow dark and dim, vulnerable, and the vestige withdrawn after being betrayed a second time. In a final encounter with the embittered He Who Could Have Been, the party overcomes the vestige in a combination encounter/skill challenge. Failure of the skill challenge equates to the inability to capture the vestige in the Lord of Ebon Flies, and there is no choice but to destroy him. Of course, failure of the encounter means the vestige now has the party prisoner, and may brainwash/reprogram them into servants, change their alignment to good, slay them outright, or make a counter offer to help him bring down Asmodeus.Expanding the Adventure:What if He Who Was, in his efforts to reconstitute himself via errant divinity of fallen gods scattered across the Astral Sea instead became a many-headed god, a deity of fractured and perhaps maddened personalities, seeking to now swallow the existing gods into his fold? Or what if he absorbed too much Primordial energy and grew into a new Primordial, enemy of the gods good and evil alike? Recipe:Mercury Dragon: Silikoras, whose mercurial needs and appetites were all of them sated in the deep depravity of Hell's seventh ring. He was the one with the finer details on the portal and location of Gloryda.Crystal Sepulcher: The vessel in which the last vestige dwelt, crystal clear and having spawned the entire Crystal Isles, and which drew errant divinity from across the plane to help him reconstitute. The prophet and her purity were intimately tied to it, and it granted her her power and eventual destiny as the mother of a god. Her betrayal darkened the crystal, as the faith wavered, and eventually led to a diminished and betrayed vestige.Corrupt Prophet: In this sense, the major task of the party in Gloryda was to corrupt the Virgin Bride and in doing so weaken the sepulcher and the vestige to a point they could be dealt with.Abstinence: The Virgin Bride's abstinence from sex is what kept her pure and worthy to eventually receive the vestige's essence. Abstinence is also what Silikoras lacked and which caused all his troubles to begin with. And when it comes to devils or demons, abstinence from their desires is largely impossible, from Asmodeus and Baalzelbul on down.Loaded Dice: The trick dice Barbatos gives the group, along with an identical pair of real dice, in order to win their way through small-time games towards a match, or matches, with Miminix. They could help with back Silikoras, or at least gain them an audience with the corruption devil.Ebon Fly: The group are given ebon flies as a final boon by Barbatos, one of the most potent symbols of Baazelbul. They can be used throughout the adventure, as distractions through the Demonweb, as well as mounts. The Lord of Ebon Flies is the magic container which is meant to house the last vestige.</blockquote>

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