PLEASE Help w/ Homebrew

[Bonehoard Taffer]

Hmmmmmm,

this world is starting to take on a look unlike any of the settings I am familiar with. But that is great.


A few things that I have come up with.

The negative energy HAS affected "Old Black". In fact "Old Black" is now a Draco-lich. However she can't/won't admit it. Since she is ancient, she prefers her solitude, and most of her followers don't even know about her undead status. Those who do know it, aren't going to say anything, especially to "Old Black" herself. Have you ever disagreed with an ancient dragon? That would be bad enough, but to also disagree with one who is undead on top of it all, is down right suicide.

Perhaps there are two suns. The neg. energy/fire sun and a larger, invisible sun of negative energy. Somewhere on the surface of my world, there is an artifact that is drawing negative energy from the big black sun which filters through the neg. energy/fire sun which then rains it down on the world. Trouble is no one knows the artifact exists.

Still puzzlled about what to do about the paladins, unless I say that there is still a small amount of pos. energy coming down, and then not concentrate the paladins and clerics in one area.

As far as the synapses thing, what if they didn't fire. Maybe there is something metaphysical about them. When a person dies, their soul leaves the body and that prevents certain things from happening no matter how much negative energy a body absorbs.

The Halrua fix sounds the most intriguing, trouble is it also sounds like the most work.

Whew!!! This is alot of work. Anyone who has more ideas, PLEASE cotribute. Thanks.

 

[Ghostmoon]

Hey,

I was thinking that the negative sun would have no effect on those undead vulnerable to sunlight. Props to F5 for the brilliant idea of the desecrate effect and how the heroes would attack the undead at night. On the desert thing, it would be up to you on how much heat the sun gives off and thus whether deserts would be scorching dustbowls or frozen wastelands.

I also had a thought on the nature of paladins and clerics. Perhaps when the sun was changed, a final burst of positive energy motes showered down on the planet and merged with the souls of random creatures. On the death of person with a mote, the mote leaves the person and jumps to the soul of an unborn infant. Only those with the motes can become paladins and clerics.

However, the process of merging continues to be random. A human infant is as likely to receive the mote as a lowly kobold infant. The paladins and clerics constantly hunt down infants with the motes (Sun Born?), taking them whenever they find them. The infants are raised from birth to be paladins and clerics. Also, when they find someone who is too old or recalcitrant to be inducted into the faith, they are slain so that the mote may merge with a new soul and they have another chance at getting a recruit. Thus, no one chooses to be a paladin or cleric and when black-cloaked paladins and priests come calling, there is always woe.

Paladins and clerics in this setting are likely almost as feared as the undead. They are willing to go any where and do anything for their cause, no matter what the price, as long as it gets the job done. They could be viewed as creatures without remorse and emotion, almost as bad as the undead they struggle against.

A few final thoughts. The whole alien plant thing gives druid PCs (and rangers as well) something to latch on to and they can be really useful in combating them. Druids would be far less useful then clerics in a world with undead and no vegetation/nature. Also, the whole mote/paladin thing above gives you the opportunity to have some pretty odd paladins, such as non-humanoids.

Hope this helps,
Ghostmoon

 

[jdavis]

Some suggestions.

As far as Plants go as long as there is some light the plants will try to adapt, instead of perpetual darkness have it rotate from dark to dusk (where a dim light of some sort is visable). I'd also put in seasons so that the time of dusk varies. For limiting good to a certain area, I'd apply a mighty artifact that captured the last of the positive energy from the sun and holds the negative energy at bay in an area. You would have a boundary where all the rules would change, adventurers who go past the boundary would have to carry positive energy with them some way as it would be extremely weak there. The undead lords are always trying to penitrate the wall and destroy the artifact, but the closer tye get the weaker they become. I'd have the border change with the seasons and I'd also have stone markings with dates on them showing where the border used to end, it should always be shrinking, not so you would notice day to day but it always looses a foot or so a year. A main priority for the good guys would be trying to find a way to either restore the balance or repower the artifact. The vegetation outside this area would be soaked with negative energy and would be alot like the Blight from The Wheel of Time, putred and dangerous.

I'd make sure there was a difference between evil and undead. Both good and evil are in a fight on the same side, I mean who really wants to be a zombie, thus evil characters would be alowed as PC's, but not evil clerics or necromancers or characters that use negative energy. The war between good and evil is on hold until the world is put right again, the main difference in good and evil would be in the methods they use. As for the Black Dragon, she could use magic to keep her body alive so as to hide that she is a draco lich, the body is just a puppet, she doesn't need to eat or breath to live the body carries on due to magic, she is not dependant on any body function and must cast powerful spells to keep the body from dying and decaying. This would kkep all but her most trusted in the dark and would keep her in fear that her true nature would be found out and she would be destroyed by her own allies. (you could even throw in something vile, such as she has to use fresh blood from other sources, like human sacrifices, to keep from becomming fully undead.)

I'd make sure there was plenty of mythology about what happened but I wouldn't let on a true definitive reason (that would be a great plot point for the characters to discover towards the end of a campaign.)

Example mythology: There was only one god, the great mother god, the all encompasing void, she created the world so she would not be alone in the void and set it in motion, she did not directly interfere in the world and aided both sides equally. (Call her true Neutral). She created two children for herself, the child of her light side and the child of her dark side. She forbid them from interfering in her world, it was for her alone. Both children ignored her as they were enthralled by the world there mother had created, to get around her ban they created lesser gods to be avatars of their will. The great mother god allowed them there manipulations as it gave her entertainment and they did not directly interfere. Then the dark child hatched a plot to poison her mother with her own darkness, the Great mother was crippled and her world was horribly deformed, the child of light sacrificed her body to save the light and the great artifact of light was formed out of her body. The great mother god pulled all the lesser gods to her tightly and used their strength to save her creation, but the dark child fled into the void by giving up her body and infusing her spirit with the god of the undead. The light child has no power to affect the world anymore as she is only a spirit and the mother god uses all the lesser gods to try to restore the balance. She is cripled with darkness just as her world is and wishes to return to a true neutral form. The dark child is free of any constraint but now only has power to influence the undead. (this is really, really rough but maybe it will spark some better ideas.)

 

[Bonehoard Taffer]

Ghostmoon,

just a thought. What if a mote found it's way into the body of a zombie or ghoul?

Also, what ways to you envision the ecological changes the plants and/or animals go through?

 

[Bonehoard Taffer]

JDavis, thanks for your input. Here's some ideas I had as to the nature of what caused this situation.

There are two suns. One that is a neg. energy/fire
sun. The other appears only on eclipse like events. It
is a larger, black negative energy sun.

Unknown to most, the illithids discovered this second
sun during their travel to the world, and built an
artifact that pulls energy from the second sun,
through the first (corrupting it and raining down
negative energy through the daylight hours).

This negative energy has caused certain metaphysical
and ecological changes in the world.

Metaphysically, two main things happen. 1)The
"daylight" hours act as though a desecrate spell
blankets the world 2)Any necromancy spell cast, acts
as though a maximize feat is in effect. Unknown,
however, to necromancers and practitioners of
necromantic spells madness is a side effect.


So, let me know what you think, and thanks again for your input.

 

[jdavis]

I like the evil artifact and several fake myths would help to throw people off the track of the true reason. (maybe even some myths were intentionally planted to hide the truth) Also if there was mythology that there was a positive artifact but in all actuality it was a negative artifact causing it all, well I can just imagine the curve ball that would throw to a party. Two sun's, two godling son's, one dark one light, would be a myth with just enough truth to start a party thinking, the myth would actually be because of a mistranslation of sun to son, and that could further lead people to believe that this involves a Gaia god with two son's one light the other dark, when the actual translation (probably written on the wall of some long forgotten temple out in the undead realms) was that there are two suns, one dark and one light that revolve around the planet.

I think it would be best to localize your positive energy so as to explain the good kingdoms, maybe they are in highlands (putting them closer to the good sun?). I think having Paladins from a diverse range would be neat too (I can see that Kobold Paladin already). If you are born able to use positive energy you would be trained regardless of your race or background (brainwashed? well maybe in the black dragon's realm, you could theoretically have Paladins who were Lawful Evil but viewed themselves as good).

 

[Deadguy]

JDavis, thanks for your input. Here's some ideas I had as to the nature of what caused this situation.

Forgive me, I am gonna weigh in here, even though I am not jdavis!

There are two suns. One that is a neg. energy/fire
sun. The other appears only on eclipse like events. It
is a larger, black negative energy sun.

Interestingly, two suns might be able to eclipse each other depending on the chosen orbital mechanics, so there can be stories of the Dark Sun from before the Change of the World. These might give pointers to survival tricks and insight into the current situation.

Unknown to most, the illithids discovered this second
sun during their travel to the world, and built an
artifact that pulls energy from the second sun,
through the first (corrupting it and raining down
negative energy through the daylight hours).

This might sound like a silly question but why did the Illithids go to such lengths to produce this effect? It's not like they themselves are creatures of Negative Energy. And from what you've described so far, they have no niche within the setting. If you want to go the artifact route, I wouldd suggest that the reasoning be attached to the Lords of the Undead themselves. That they manage to achieve their desire to make the whole world more attractive to them

Additionally, you seem to be moving away from a Dark/Twilight world to a more normal world with an Undead infestation. That might just be the way you've phrased things though. Personally I like the early descriptions of a world shifting between Twilight and Darkness, with Darkness actually being the time of the Heroes! It's a nice twist on the usual theme.

This negative energy has caused certain metaphysical
and ecological changes in the world.

Metaphysically, two main things happen. 1)The
"daylight" hours act as though a desecrate spell
blankets the world 2)Any necromancy spell cast, acts
as though a maximize feat is in effect. Unknown,
however, to necromancers and practitioners of
necromantic spells madness is a side effect.

I know that Necromancers are often portrayed as a pretty loopy bunch anyway, but unless the Change is fairly recent or the Madness very subtle, I think that they might pick up on the insanity clause for necrmantic magic. That doesn't mean people don't use the magic, just that they might take more care about it. Depending on how much you want to emphasise the insanity you might want to use a system to keep track of the usage of necromancy and its effects on PCs and NPCs.

You might want to look at other ramifications of the Black Sun too. Perhaps healing is impaired during the Twilight hours, so magical healing does less in the 'day' and no natural healing occurs (the upshot, people are far more cautious). Perhaps the land of the Paladins is still bright enough that they don't suffer this effect. That puts most of the world's refugees on the side of the Paladins.

On the question of plant life, you might want to go stranger than just fungi. When I was reading this thread I the image of great banyans, stretching for miles, with multiple trunks, leaching life from the soil and anything they can come into contact with. But their boughs might also shield you from the effects of th Black Sun, and provide both fruits and water, so creating the possibility of communties outside of the paladin lands, living a precarious balance.

I quite like the idea of the Black Sun spontaneously animating the bodies of the dead. People will either burn their dead or build very strong walled tombs to contain the corpses!

By the way, you've made one or two comments about the Planes. My feeling is that generally with a world having such an unusual metaphysics, it's usually best to build yourself a custom cosmology to go with it. if you just copy the standard Inner/Outer Pane divide and the Great Wheel, you get teh situation where high level characters just walk away from your world and ignore its problems in favour of planar campaigns. It means your hard work is then wasted and the oppressive-ominous feel to the campaign undermined. Perhaps you need to make up a simple cosmology, involving just a Spirit World and the Positive and Negative Suns (though I may be biased, it's similar to the cosmology I use for my own homebrew!).

Still, you are on to a campaign that should provide a refreshing change for your players and an interesting challenge for you as DM. Good luck, and keep posting about the choices you make.

 

[Bonehoard Taffer]

I think it would be best to localize your positive energy so as to explain the good kingdoms, maybe they are in highlands (putting them closer to the good sun?). I think having Paladins from a diverse range would be neat too (I can see that Kobold Paladin already). If you are born able to use positive energy you would be trained regardless of your race or background (brainwashed? well maybe in the black dragon's realm, you could theoretically have Paladins who were Lawful Evil but viewed themselves as good).

Yes, Paladins with other alignments are a nice touch. You could have various sects of Paladins, some good and some bad. That could lead to conflict. For my diety, I was thinking of dual aspects of creator and destroyer. So, that wouldn't effect Paladins with alternate alignments. Another option would be those knights with other alignments were not Paladins, but orders of religous knights. Another thought I had was to have the class of Paladin be a prestige class. In order to be one you have to prove yourself worthy and be knighted by a King or some other political leader.

 

[Bonehoard Taffer]

Forgive me, I am gonna weigh in here, even though I am not jdavis!

That's fine, I am loving the input.

Originally posted by Deadguy
This might sound like a silly question but why did the Illithids go to such lengths to produce this effect? It's not like they themselves are creatures of Negative Energy. And from what you've described so far, they have no niche within the setting. If you want to go the artifact route, I wouldd suggest that the reasoning be attached to the Lords of the Undead themselves. That they manage to achieve their desire to make the whole world more attractive to them

No, that's a logical question. What I was thinking is that in an attempt to increase their power, the illithids have created a device that draws neg. energy and stores it w/excesses permeating the world. The reason they are doing this, is that they have come up with a scheme to convert neg. energy into psionic energy in an effort to boost their own mental powers. The ultimate goal of the players in the campaign will be to discover what's going on and destroying the artifact before 1) the undead take over and 2) the mind flayers complete their experiments.

 

[Azzemmell]

Myth ideas

Hey, just some ideas on myths...

What if an ascended mortal or lesser god became powerfull enough to make an assault on the rest of whatever pantheon exists.

This upstart's sphere of influence is undead, or neg. energy, or such.

What he wants is to dominate the plane, turn it into a version of the afterlife or such.

Or maybe this aggressor is from another plane and is intent on expanding his realm (hell, or the afterlife) and has chosen this world to expand into. He/she could be the source of the changed sun and ecology.

Also, what happens to souls of native people who die? Are they trapped in this world as undead, not allowed to go to "heaven".

If you've ever read any of Wotc's Primal... Primal something, can't remember the name of the books, this could be a powerplay by one god to gain control of souls on this world, thus weakening the other gods (who rely on souls for their power).


If you ever want to have regions with daylight in them you could have shrines or temples with lofty spires upon which are set globes that radiate sunlight (postv enrgy) on an ebbing cycle (to mimic the day night cycle that the natives find familiar and comforting).

Just some ideas