Reviving a dead god

[Quickleaf]

Totally parroting what [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] said. Back when I ran Planescape the PCs had to revive the god Osiris who'd been cut up into bits by the god Set. Their task was to recover the various organs/body parts for Isis so a spell could be cast to revive Osiris. Just what each organ/body part was I played around with. I think the heart of Osiris was the high priestess of Isis, so there was the question "what happens to her when we revive him?" And then the skull of Osiris was a mimir (an actual talking skull). I also incorporated a lot of Egyptian mythology about death into the whole thing.

[MENTION=5868]Olgar Shiverstone[/MENTION] Awesome

[MENTION=6667922]scott2978[/MENTION] With your scenario, the biggest stumbling block I see is "why the hell would we do this Corellon?!?" I don't think you've yet given a convincing enough reason. I mean, drow are gathering to assault the surface; most players are going to go "Oh yeah? Let's get all our good allies together and kick their asses back to the darkness!" Why is Lolth needed? What can she do that another deity could not to stop the mounting invasion?

Also, I'd imagine other Seldarine (and good deities in general) wouldn't be too keen on Lolth's resurrection...of course, neither would Kiaransalee or Selvetarm. So in addition to the great advice above, I'd expect part of the PCs' quest would be getting support (or at least non-interference agreements) from the Seldarine / good temples.

 

[Alzrius]

One possible idea is that while Lolth, the actual deity, may have died, that there's still a piece of her that's alive somewhere; that is, an avatar - or even an aspect - that's hiding out some place remote. The PCs now must find this being, hiding from the entire multiverse, and take her as a companion (and what a dangerous companion!) on a quest to elevate her to divinity.

(Alternately, they must find a dead avatar/aspect, and resurrect it first - which is sure to be especially difficult - and then do the above.)

 

[Greenfield]

Isn't there a "Revive Outsider" spell?

I know, stupid question.

 

[Loonook]

The issue is finding the ritual components to resurrect a vessel which embodies Lolth. So we need to look at Lolth's history, portfolio, and power level you want her to return at. Like calls to like in most mystic traditions and rituals in literature, so it may be fun to work based off of that.

Portfolio: Assassins, chaos, darkness, drow, evil, spiders.
Domains: Darkness, Poison, Trickery.

So what do we choose for each of these aspects? Lolth in her earlier appearances, before she gained who true strength, was an Intermediate deity, so we would need some powerful, but not planar effects to revive her at that strength.

Assassins: The sacrifice of a great weapon made in the First Days, hidden in an ancient tomb, said to have the power to kill a god.

Chaos: A drop of the essence of primordial chaos, bound into a glass vial formed from the sands of time.

Darkness: The ritual most occur in a place of virgin shadow, a place where no light has been shed since the first of days.

Drow:The ritual must be performed by the last of her priestesses, drow who have been driven into hiding for the heresy of worshiping their dead Lady.

Evil: A perfect Elven child, as flawless as Araushnee Herself before her ascension/corruption as Lolth, as a vessel for the risen deity.

Poison: The souls of those who feasted at the Festhall of Grey Tower, a place where a cruel lord poisoned all of his vassals. The place was lost to history, but there are rumors that a tumbled tower in the depths of a wood may be the former seat of the fallen lord.

Spiders: The last of the Great Underdark Orb Spider, which must be slaughtered during the ritual and its limbs set around the bound body of the flawless sacrifice to call the Lady of the Demonweb Pits.

Trickery: A great treason must be performed upon a member of the party by all of their comrades without their knowledge. The blood of the betrayed is used to bless the ritual implements.


And of course the sacrifices at the place.

It's a rough ritual, but if they want to bring Lolth back they are on the way to Evil as it is.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Dwimmerlied]

It might be that the weaver of plots had already seen her own fate closing in on her. The contrivings and plots all drew to some inescapable conclusion. Yes, the heroic pawns she was to fight might destroy her, and this was possibly the way it had to be. But she had a trump card, a life-line that she could pull on from even the far side of existence; for in the times between, she had reached across the voids and held council with Tharizdun. Some of her most secret of (double? triple?) agents had been about, here and there learning its secrets, and she had now a conduit with it, and with secret rites and tasks, and with her divine might, she had learned the riddles of the insane god, and set about the conditions for his release. The permanent destruction of a god (in this case, herself), was a key to releasing Tharizdun. One thing that she could bet on was that heaven and earth would move to stop the return of Tharizdun.

 

[scott2978]

I never expected to get such incredible advice and ideas, thanks to everyone who contributed!

I'll take the ideas that work best in my campaign and work them into the story.

Thanks!

 

[Starfox]

We did this, we revived Lolth, tough it happened off-camera as a part of the campaign background. First we played a campaign G1-3, D1-3, Q1 where Lolth was killed. Story then was that a dragon had moved in on Lolth's old turf and absorbed the abyssal power released when her web broke. My old PC from the first party (an NPC by this time) revived Lolth as a drow child. When the godling-dragon was slain, he arranged to have this child exposed to th same divine energies again, reviving Lolth. It was somewhat more complex that that, also involving some ex-priestesses of Lolth.

His angle was that "better the evil you know" and besides he was chaotic neutral (and had worn a ring of contrariness for the longest time).

Ah, back in my school days!

 

[jmoliere12077]

I think Monte had a whole book on dead gods. You might find some ideas there. Fiest's novel 'Darkness at Sethanon' involves a plot to revive dead gods. The Age of Worms adventure path involves a plot to revive a dead god, so you might look there also.

Your biggest logical issue I foresee is probably going to be if you take an interest in reviving Lolth, you'll have to probably do it over the dead body of some other god. I can't imagine that the Seldarine are going to be thrilled to have her back. I can't imagine for example Corellon Larethian just standing by and say, "Mortal, you wish to resurrect my greatest and most implacable foe? Yeah, I'm ok with that. Have fun." And she wasn't much into sharing either. So your 'legitimate reason' has to be sufficiently legitimate that the Seldarine is willing to go along with it.

As for accomplishing it, I'd think you'd need to check off some pretty significant events:

a) You need a get together a large number of sincere lolth believers to assist in your ritual.
b) You need to obtain a portion of the body of the dead god - a relic or artifact of some sort - that is embued with the power of the god.
c) You need to perform the ritual in a place of power that is powerful even by the standards of a diety - in the roots of the tree of life, on top the world stone at the heart of the world, on the throne of the gods, on the body of a newly dead rival god of lolth, at the shut gates to the Beyond where the creator left the universe, at the divine pool from when the gods were originally birthed, etc. Alternately, the place of power could be an artifact of divine salient power - something even the gods fear or covet.
d) To perform the ritual, you need to perform some pretty massive knowledge (religion) and spellcraft checks, and sink a massive amount of XP - probably pooled by simultaneously sacrificing the lives of 1000's of mortals - and perform a Wish. In the aforementioned, 'Darkness at Sethanon' novel, the ritual required sacrificing the lives of every living creature on the planet simultaneously. There is probably a good bet that the one performing the ritual is going to die, possibly to become the body that dead god's spirit takes over and kicks the old tenant out. There is a good bet that many of the worshipers are also planned part of the sacrifice. It's possible that the person performing the ritual doesn't realize this is going to happen. It's even more likely, especially in the case of CE worshippers, that they need to not realize that this is going to happen or they'll rebel.
e) There might be other sundry complications. Lloth's divine power and portfolio might have been mostly claimed by some other diety. You'll need to either kill that other diety or convince them to return the portfolio (fat chance). Or the portfolio itself might have just evaporated with Lolth's death, meaning that for example, there are fewer spiders, darkness, treachery, and intrigue in the world in her absence. To bring her back to power, you may have to do something that makes room for her portfolio in the unverse - an incredible act of treachery for example. Also, the ritual to restore an evil dead god probably has the [Evil] descriptor. Chances are, whoever performs the deed, even if they don't die, will be consumed by evil and undergo involuntary alignment change. Again, side effects like that might not be clear at the beginning of the process.

I would also look at horde of the under dark As many of them follow that specific god