[Plot] Please help me with some history!

[Bodah]

My campaign has recently crossed the threshold into epic levels. My guess is that things will only get more hectic from here on out. so I decided I need to sit down and flesh some parts of my story out. Any serious ideas are greatly appreciated, I just cant seem to knock some of this out on my own.

A bit of campaign history may help the idea process get going here, so bear with me while I give a bit of info. The main villain of the campaign is a Leshay from the epic level handbook. The characters have been giving chase to him for nearly 25 levels or so and uncovering his plans on the way while fighting for their lives and the fate of Faerun (I tried to go 'epic' in every sense of the word with this campaign) and they are now nearing a point where they will reveal most of the story and finally begin down the last part of the adventure... so I must now fill out of the final parts of the story and the history of their villain.

Issue #1: The Leshay themselves.. their history. The history of their race is pretty vague. Normally I would like this when it comes to races, because it allows me more creative freedom when filling in the blanks of their past. However with this one I just cant seem to come up with a history that seems to click well with the little info that was given. For those of you without the epic level handbook, the overall history of the leshay goes like this: They are the remnants of a once great race that predated the current multiverse, and that some catastrophe wiped out most of their people but also changed time so that their era and empire never existed. It also hints that attempting to undo this catastrophe would result in something even worse happening. So what was this catastrophe? what could have been that bad? What lead up to this catastrophe? What would really happen if someone attempted to undo this catastrophe?

Issue #2: The Leshay Villains diabolical plan.. up to this point he has been attempting to gain access to a device that would allow him to travel back in time. The players have been trying to stop him for various reasons. The Leshay was planning to attempt to travel back in time to ancient Netheril, and steal Karsus' spell that allowed him to absorb the essence of a god. Thereby giving him the power he needs to complete the final steps of his plan once he has become a god. His final plan itself is what I am unsure of. I had originally tied his history in with that of the Elven peoples on Faerun, and that for wrongs the Elves had committed against him in the past (its a long story, I'll write it out later if I need to though) he was going to wipe them out and whoever else that got in his way with the power of his newly acquired godhood. I would prefer that he went back in time and acquired the essence of a god for reasons more tied to the mysterious 'catastrophe' that wiped out most of the Leshay. However since I was unable to come up with a good history for the Leshay themselves, I obviously havent been able to come up with his final plan that would be related to it either.

Issue #3: The Leshay Villain is obviously planning to majorly alter the history of the Forgotten Realms.. Obviously I can think of one directly affected group that will probably be against this.. The gods of Faerun. The gods and their followers have a tendancy to get involved in major happenings in Faerun, and this is a major major major happening. I need a good reason why the gods themselves wouldnt just step in and prevent this event from occuring.. what gods would be for and against this going on? The Leshay villain would be absorbing the essence of Mystra in the past (mystryl at the time I think?) so I would think maybe Shar would want to see the Leshay villain succeed possibly.. The main question is: What would stop the gods from just directly preventing this ever happening, and what gods would be for/against this?


I really need all the help I can get with this guys, even if you cant address all 3 issues. Just helping out with 1 is enough. If you feel you need anymore info to properly help out feel free to ask and I will attempt to answer.

 

[DanMcS]

The obvious answer is that 1 and 2 are the same thing. Your villain is trying to become a god. So were the ancient Leshay. Why this was a bad thing which needed to be stopped may depend on their methods. For instance, if the magic required to start one toward apotheosis would strip bare a planet of life, in the style of the defilers from Dark Sun, and each Leshay needed to strip mine the life-force of an entire planet to ascend, then that's pretty obviously bad, and needed to be stopped.

The current gods may want this stopped because killing everyone in the universe is evil, or just because they don't want new upstart divine competition. Or, they may not be the original gods from the time of the Leshay, so they may not know quite what is going on. Maybe the older gods had to sacrifice themselves to stop the Leshay from succeeding the first time.

The currently living Leshay mostly agree with the philosophy that attempting to wrest divinity from the souls of others is a bad thing, so none of the rest of them are trying to accomplish it. But a long time ago, the Leshay formula for godhood was given to a netherese warlock, who didn't quite do it right (I don't know the official FR history, I'm just making this up) and so only succeeded in creating that big desert in the north-central FR, and not wiping out the whole planet. Your villain intends to go back, steal back the Leshay ritual, and do it right.

 

[Bodah]

Thats actually a very good idea. That still brings up the issue though of "Why dont the gods just step in personally and take care of this?" I was thinking that maybe because they've put their faith into the PC's taking care of it. After all they do worship a number of the powerful good aligned dieties of Faerun (Tyr, Correllion Larethian) Would the gods really leave something this massive up to the group though? I know ultimately this is my choice regardless, but I still want to have it seem like it would fit within the reality of the setting.

I really like the idea that these gods may not totally understand whats going on, especially if previous gods had to sacrifice themselves in order to stop this from happening before. Why does the villain need a gods power though? I need to get his actual motivations down. Does he want to attempt to restore the Leshay, regardless of the cost? Maybe his intentions are good, but just misguided. Maybe he simply wants the power to take revenge upon the gods for what they did. Ideas are starting to flow here, this is good. I'd like to hear some more of your thoughts.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll give this some thought, and post some ideas tomorrow.

 

[nopantsyet]

Well, an especially crafty villain might find some way of distracting the gods, involving them in something even more pressing...

...it was unfortunate that, at that time when the very history of Faerun sat on the brink of catastrophe, the progenitor of the aforementioned plot had learnt of conflict amongst the gods of that place. He sowed discord and cultivated contention. And a war from those roots sprung. The attention of the gods drawn inward, the Leshay found himself free to act on Faerun, little fearing that the eyes of the gods be drawn upon him.

Okay, so I just took license and made your final plot into your second-to-final plot. But there's no such thing as "too epic," is there?

 

[Bodah]

Well, an especially crafty villain might find some way of distracting the gods, involving them in something even more pressing...

Hm, actually thats a great idea and fits well within the reality I've been establishing so far. The Leshay villain has been using Kir-Lanan as his minions throughout the campaign. For those of you unaware of what Kir-Lanan are: Essentially negative energy gargoyles that hate the gods, they've followed him so far because of his hatred for the gods. They give him a force to command, he gives them a leader that has a real chance at hurting their greatest foes (the gods).

The problem with that is.. the players know the Kir-Lanan work for the Leshay villain.. which also means the deities of those players likely know the same. At this the players only know that the Leshay wants to go back in time, they dont quite know for what yet. They know that the Kir-Lanan are working for him. So whenever the Kir-Lanan attacked they would essentially know it was the Leshay behind it. This means that I must look toward a conflict that turns deity against deity. Whether the Kir-Lanan are the instruments of this or the Leshay himself.. I dont know yet. I will have to make it look to the players that rival gods are attacking each other. The operation must fool everyone and not look like ANY sort of attack from the Leshay.

I think whatever is done to turn the deities against eachother would have to be something bigger than "this deity had his followers destroy one of this deities temples" After all this is an epic campaign. Whatever incites this has to be something that would force the gods into blatant moves against each other that they normally dont engage in for fear of an all out war.

 

[green slime]

Well, there is the fact, IIRC, that gods are supposed to be prevented from direct intervention since the days of the Cataclysm. This by the Über-god Ao. So they might very well be aware and send dire warnings, dreams and other hints to their worhippers, yet they fear to directly intervene, else cause another cataclysm (during which several gods died, and portfolios where suffled around).

Given the grandeur of the scale of the plot, there will be a multitude of gods/godlings/religions on each side, some assisting the rogue Leshay, others trying to hinder the plot, or manipulate the events so things go their way.

For instance, Shar may very well try to fool the villian into absorbing some of Mystryl's power, only in order to fool him into immediately offering his newfound power to Shar herself, so she can assume some or all of her rival's portfolio.

Perhaps this plot was inspired by some forgotten branch of one of the dead gods, in order for the death of their deity to become undone. They would in any event be closely watching, if they are aware of the plot.

Then there are other powerful beings, dragons, wizards, and nations that would likely try to get involved, in one way or another, trying to subvert the Villian's machinations.

If you truly want something to spark a "Godswar" then you need a truly cataclysmic event, (for instance the death of a Major god of good, killed by the Cyric, the Dark Sun). What causes him to make such a move, is anyones guess. (As the master of lies and deception as well (IIRC) then perhaps the major isn't killed at all....Any reason given is probably only a half truth to cover up further plots and lies) but the result is the same; Interplanar warfare on a grand scale; Clerics of a mad CE god activate their artifact "Portal to the Abyss" and Demonic hordes spilling forth across Faerûn, battling Devils and Celestials alike.

Another cause of consernation among the gods could be the Redemption of an Evil God, which leads to a split in the heirachy of Good gods, those willing to believe the change, and those incredulous to it. With so many gods to choose from, you can have an extremely complex web of mistresses, lovers, wives, hatred and rivalry enough to spark a huge war. Such an event (an evil god changes heart) would naturally cause an enormous tension as alliances, rivalries and hatreds get torn up, and would naturally have huge consequences, both outer planar and on Faerûn.

Or maybe Ao just disappears? Packs it all in for a well deserved holiday (just a millenium or two) ?

 

[Bodah]

Well you are definately right that alot of powers in the realms will be interested in the outcome of this event. Some for the sheer chaos it will cause, others for their own selfish plans. The players so far have been the only force of good that knows whats going on. They have alittle help from the church of Tyr, but only because some of them are powerful followers. They still havent laid out any evidence to get any major forces of good in the realms behind them.


I like the idea of a god killed but not really killed. If the leshay could find a way to contain a god somehow or cut him off from the rest of the gods and make it seem like that god had perished.. that would cause some serious problems among the gods. Especially if another god was suspected to have done it. These are some great ideas so far guys, lets keep going!

 

[Alcareru]

Hmm heres some ramblings. If I remember there was a "rule" that said time travel couldnt occur in the Relams because Mystara or somebody who was repsonsible for chronomancy would stop any temporal disturbances. But anyway..

Lets say this Leshay was a castaway from another plane or multiverse or someplace far from Faerun, dragged or exiled here long ago by some cosmic event (or Ao). Once on Faerun he was a trouble maker in the past and Ao or some god helped entrap him on Faerun as a mortal. He may have even been a mighty being in the past- god or lesser deity in his other dimension or plane, and seeks the power of a god again-or he wishes to kill the god or gods that helped trap him here. Either way he pretty bitter.

Long centuries of study have shown him that another temporal/cosmic event is going to occur soon- one that will open a gate in a particular part of the realms, that, with the aid of an ancient Nethril device, will allow him to go back to Nethril and steal this spell.

The upcoming event is wrecking havoc with the gods, even Ao. so they can only communicate with their follwers with some difficulty. Perhaps these cosmic difficulties manifest themselves as wild magic, problems witht he weave, the shunning of some clerical orders by once faithful dieties, etc.

Just some thoughts to get rid of the pesky pantheon interference problems. With this sort of thinking, it could be a race to recover the Nethril device, then a race to get to the "gate" or cosmic event threshold(preferably located in some hard to reach dangerous place.)

 

[Bodah]

Long centuries of study have shown him that another temporal/cosmic event is going to occur soon- one that will open a gate in a particular part of the realms, that, with the aid of an ancient Nethril device, will allow him to go back to Netheril and steal this spell.

This fits in pretty well with what I've been doing so far in the campaign. The original method of going back in time was going to be the following portal found on the wizards website http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030402b The only problem with that was that 'no living being' can go back. I introduced an atrifact that shielded the wielder from that, and allowed him to safely travel back in time, or so the players thought. In reality the villain played a game of planting some misinformation and they took the bait. In fact right now they've been searching for the artifact, meanwhile the villain himself has been secretly acquiring the means to make his own teleport through time portal as detailed in these links: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030409b and http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/pg/20030416b I have a feeling that pretty soon they will uncover the truth that they've been fooled, they have been a bit suspcious lately so it may come out soon.

I could still play off that 'temporal event' theme though. I could say that the portals magic itself will only work at designated times in history itself, when such an event occurs. That would give the players a deadline and a sense of urgency knowing they have to intercept him before this temporal event comes to pass.

The gods, already in a heightened state of alert and paranoia knowing the temporal event would be coming.. they feel their link to their followers weaken, their links to each other weaken.. and then Tyr himself dissapears, and so does justice for the entire realms. The deities immediately suspect one another as trying to capitialize on the chaos surrounding the temporal event.. and prepare for war.

edit: hit reply too soon. Anyway that could work very well. Anyone have any other ideas?