Need some plot help (yea, again)

[der_kluge]

Ok, so I'm at this point in my campaign where I need to tie a bunch of stuff together, and I'm looking for some ideas.

A lot of my campaign is centered around the MonkeyGod modules Black Ice Well, and Hellstone Deep. So, if you're familiar with those, so much the better, but here goes:

A long time ago there was this god of chaos who build a device that could kill creatures a single blast, essentially. A big war occurred between gods, and the god of chaos, along with a god of law were both destroyed. A celestial came down, and destroyed the device (a gem) and shattered the remains.

During this time, a group of demons said "screw you, we're leaving" and abandoned the god of chaos. After the god died, a large body of his blood was culled from his corpse, and they collected it in their fortress, and mined it for power and necromantic magic. The blood corrupted them, though, and at away at the landscape. A wizard fled the fortress with a key, only to be killed in an inhospitable wasteland away from the confines of the fortress.

Fast forward 200,000 years. A vampire kills a mortal who found the key, and now he has it. He has an army of vampires of his own, and seeks to enter the fortress and claim the blood for himself. Only, there are all these slaad trying to get into it as well, but they can't since they don't have the key. And there are slaad all over the place, "looking for sources of power". The PCs have fought them on occasion, but don't know why they are here in this land.

Enter another dimension - a powerful demon who wishes to reassemble the gem that the ancient god of chaos used. If he can reassemble it, he'll be all-powerful. Just one problem - it's scattered all over the land. So, he gets slaad to go all over the land and find the shards for him.

This is where I'm struggling. The slaad could work for the demon and agree to find the shards for him, but they'd want something in return. I'm thinking the demon could convince the slaad that he knows a way into the fortress (a lie) and can get them into it (another lie) if they retrieve all the shards for him. Problem is, once they acquire all the shards, they're going to want their payment from the demon, and he's not going to be able to deliver it. Unless... he gives the vampire the information about what the key is used for, since he might not otherwise be able to figure it out on his own, and then sends the vampire into the fortress (who conveniently destroys many of the slaad in the process) eliminating them for the demon, who doesn't care for them anymore than the next guy does.

Hey, you know I think I might have just solved my own problem.

Well, there are other factors at play that I still need to work in. Like, the mortal the had the key was the first explorer to this lost continent the PCs are on, and I haven't yet decided what his status is. And, whether or not the demon would want access to this blood as well. Perhaps he believes he can go in there and take some once the vampire and the slaad all kill each other?

Well, any other interesting ideas anyone has, I'll certainly take 'em. I'd also like to have some nice divination prophecies, since the players might start tossing off divinations to find out "why the slaad are here", and "what's in the fortress", etc. I'm not very good at coming up with good answers that are less-than-obvious on the spot.

 

[Terraism]

So, once the demon gets all the shards, he's all-powerful, right? And he's worried about how he's going to repay the slaad when he has them all? Why am I thinking it wouldn't be much of an issue anymore?

 

[Stone Angel]

Perhaps the demon entices the Slaad by promising a faster advancement to death slaadi or even epic status such as white or black, imagine the look on your players faces when all the red and green slaadi they have been fighting crawl out of cocoons as white or black .

Perhaps the pc's can choose to ally with one of the two parties "opposed" to the demon as a temporary alliance. Why do the Slaad want in the fortress in the first place other than it just powerful stuff? I mean don't they have a director and motivations and an agenda of their own. Hope this helps.

The Seraph of Earth and Stone.

As an afterthought you could have a huge titanic end battle where the gem is reassembled. You could even time it so that in "x" amount of rounds the demon gets it and it's pretty much game over, but not the end of the world. So the gem is together BAM You have the PC's the Slaad, The Vampires, and The Demons all running for the same thing trying to get the gem. The PC's have a bag of destruction leading to the plane of destruction(hey all those nasty little orbs have to come from somewhere). The Slaad with the Gem can re awaken this dead god of chaos, the Vampires seek to fulfill a prophecy concerning "divine" blood, and the demon is just mean and greedy.

 

[rei jin]

what about....

the demon will pay the boss of the slaad for the work of his minions by giving him invulnerability. (epic spell or something like that)

as the slaad have been travelling around and finding the shards, the dead god of chaos has been whispering to them about the gem, about it's history and how to restore it.

he tells them to put the gem in the blood which is inside the fortress and the one who does will be given absolute power over everything.

they have a fight over the shards, one of them wins and takes command of the other slaad.

meanwhile the vampire wants to get the blood so that his army and himself can survive without the need for blood, and to give him invulnerability.

the vampires reach the castle at the same time as the slaad,who have discovered that the gem does nothing when assembled, and have been directed by the god of chaos to the castle and told that the vampire king has the key to gain entry. the vampire king recognises the gem from historical records(how else did he learn about the blood?) and he directs his army against the slaad, who were moving to engage them anyway. they meet outside the walls of the castle in a violent, bloody battle.

preferably the PC's watch all this from a scrying glass, or other means.

whilst the battle is raging, the vampire king and his bodyguards try to sneak into the castle unnoticed, figuring that invulnerability would help them defeat the slaad and gain the gem. the slaad commander receives word that the vampire king has slipped from battle into the castle already.

the slaad commander runs in with his strikeforce, determined to beat him to the prize. they run through the castle, and eventually meet up with the vampires outside the doors of the dark temple. an epic fight occurs between the slaad commander and the vampire king, during which the doors to the temple are blown open by the ensuing chaos (a door keyed to a large outburst of chaotic energy maybe?) all the minions fight one another and the fight moves into the temple.

the two leaders trade blow for blow, moving about the temple, which has a central platform around which flows the blood of the god of chaos. the fight intensifies, and the slaad falls momentarily.the gem falls from his hand into the blood, the vampire king dives for the gem, he sees the gem, reaches out and grabs it.

the world darkens and all the lands shake. he floats up out of the blood, its dark colour running down his body, and destroys the commander slaad with a thought. he has been possessed by the god of chaos, and is no longer himself.

the slaad all die

the vampires all die except his second in command, who goes to the PC's for help to free his master from the possesion.

the demon contacts the PC's to contract them to get the gem for him.

the PC's then learn from a celestial messanger (or whatever you desire) the nature of the reincarnation, and that they are hopelessly overpowered, unless they ally with the vampire second in command and whoever else wants to help.

so the challenge then becomes
1. to destroy the god of chaos
2. to avoid being destroyed by the demon
3. to destroy the demon eventually
4. to destroy the gem
5. to remove the blood of the god of chaos so he may never be reborn

i dunno, what do you think?

oh, and in regards to divinations...

when the seeds of chaos walk the land and light falls from the sky
destruction is moving on the wind from he who cannot die.

 

[rei jin]

oh and BTW what is your party level and makeup?

it can make things a bit easier to know what to work with.

thanks

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Some random stuff:

What's in the castle. Fully corrupted demons?

I'd consider making the 'uber demon' afraid of the god blood... he presumably knows how it corrupted the others. Perhaps demons are particularly prone to the taint? Perhaps 'like calls to like' and their chaotic natures react to it in some way. Basically, the beast has no desire to get 'hands on' in this situation - it needs some patsies to do its work - hence the Slaad.

Would it be possible for it to convince the players to work for it in some way as 'part of the greater good'. Would they enjoy this? Could they find out what it really wants?

If it isn't set in stone then making the big demon actually a devil could be intriguing - a lawful (and very evil) beast trying to harness the power of chaos... If not, then it might be worth considering if any devils have noticed the 'powerplay' by this demon?

Have any lawful forces (Inevitables?) heard about any of this? If I were a PC, confronted with all this rogue chaos, I'd consider telling those guys... they might be able to help? (possibly leading to a later adventure - I've often considered Pure Law every bit as 'bad' as Pure Chaos!)

I think Stone Angel's idea for payment is really good. Offering rapid advancement is something I can see Slaad going for - perhaps it works by the demon channeling pure chaos into them?

 

[der_kluge]

So, once the demon gets all the shards, he's all-powerful, right? And he's worried about how he's going to repay the slaad when he has them all? Why am I thinking it wouldn't be much of an issue anymore?

Well, sort of. The demon has to activate these three evil altars. The gem is really just a focus for the power of these altars.

 

[der_kluge]

what about....

the demon will pay the boss of the slaad for the work of his minions by giving him invulnerability. (epic spell or something like that)

Oooh, that might be the excuse I need to apply the "Relentless" template from the Book of Templates to something.. Nasty...

he tells them to put the gem in the blood which is inside the fortress and the one who does will be given absolute power over everything.

Hadn't considered using the blood to activate the gem. That's a new angle...

preferably the PC's watch all this from a scrying glass, or other means.

Funny you should say that, because the PCs are in the vampires enclave right now, and they did watch this battle unfold in a scrying pool. So, we're on the same page there.

whilst the battle is raging, the vampire king and his bodyguards try to sneak into the castle unnoticed, figuring that invulnerability would help them defeat the slaad and gain the gem. the slaad commander receives word that the vampire king has slipped from battle into the castle already.

<snip>

the world darkens and all the lands shake. he floats up out of the blood, its dark colour running down his body, and destroys the commander slaad with a thought. he has been possessed by the god of chaos, and is no longer himself.

the slaad all die

A story similar to this is outlined in the Black Ice Well module. Except that there are still guardians in the fortress, and the PCs will need to choose to ally themselves with them or not.

the vampires all die except his second in command, who goes to the PC's for help to free his master from the possesion.

It's funny that you would say this, because the vampire's second in command used to be the PC's boss!

the demon contacts the PC's to contract them to get the gem for him.

Well, that's probably unlikely.

the PC's then learn from a celestial messanger (or whatever you desire) the nature of the reincarnation, and that they are hopelessly overpowered, unless they ally with the vampire second in command and whoever else wants to help.

I may need to introduce a celestial to give the PCs some insight into what is going on down the road.

so the challenge then becomes
1. to destroy the god of chaos
2. to avoid being destroyed by the demon
3. to destroy the demon eventually
4. to destroy the gem
5. to remove the blood of the god of chaos so he may never be reborn

i dunno, what do you think?

All are valid scenarios. I hadn't considered 1 and 5, though.

oh, and in regards to divinations...

when the seeds of chaos walk the land and light falls from the sky
destruction is moving on the wind from he who cannot die.

I like it!

 

[der_kluge]

oh and BTW what is your party level and makeup?

it can make things a bit easier to know what to work with.

thanks

13th level

Minotaur Barbarian
Human Sorcerer
Fire Genasi Rogue/Ranger
Dwarven Fighter/Dragon Disciple (variant)
Human Fighter/Necromancer/spellsword
Human Cleric (NPC)

 

[simmo]

How about this:

- the demon disguises himself as an angel and charges the PCs with a quest to gather the shards of the gem.
- the demon also recruits the slaad to also gather the shards of the gem but what he really is after is for the PCs to kill the slaad search parties
- this way the PCs run in to the slaad on a regular basis and help clear up another of the demon's problems
- as the PCs continue their search the demon arranges for them to find out that the slaad are being controlled by a vampire lord
- cue climactic battle towards the end between the vampire lord, his minions and the PCs
- at the end when the PCs hand all the shards to the angel, he reveals his true form

Simmo