So what do we do after...

[abri]

Right now I am DMing a Darksun campaign 400years after the time of heroes, with a few twist of my own on the world (Nibeny being a very different town for example). And right now I have a problem with how the campaign should advance.
I normally have general synopsis for the scenarios well in advance and then adapt them to the "feeling of the week", but lately I found it hard to keep up...
My players keep out...









Since the campaign started they have in no particular order and generally due to the guy doing the action not having been informed by the guys that had the info...
-Liberated and become the carrier of an incarnation of basest evil, in the form of an inteligent gauntlet.
-Assasinated the leader of the Gythyanki faction trying to keep peace with the humans (causing a gigantic war).
-Brought back to life an ancient elven city which sole purpose was to reach divinity by creating demons (long story)...

So how do I continue, how do I keep the epic feeling of having royaly screwed up the world after all this?
Somehow I feel that just having them deal with the consequence of their action isn't going to be "awe inspiring enough"

 

[Crothian]

What if someone powerful learns of what they have done and comes gunning for them? You can start it out slow by having them hear rumors and stories about themsleves. This is caused by agents of whomever trying to learn more about them. You can spend a few sessions with them hearing and learnign about this but have it in the background ie the sessions have a more important plot for the PCs. Then you have the Pcs being tested. Strangers come up and start asking all sorts of well researched questions. Maybe they are even promted into trying to help undue what they have done. If they don't though, someone will send assassins after them to destroy the Pcs.

 

[gizmo33]

I'm not sure you can keep up "awe inspiring" forever. I don't know what level your characters are. You could have some army of angels come down and battle the characters for the gauntlet in an attempt to destroy it (akin to the "Isle of the Ape" module).

Then when the PCs kill the Solar leading the angels, he pronounces a curse that dooms every evil character in the world to death in 7 days unless his patron deity is slain. PCs battle their way through the heavens, slay the patron deity, then face the entire pantheon in an epic battle of such scope that the heavens shake with fury. The after that other pantheons from other universes get involved joined by the good versions of the PCs from an alternate dimension.

Etc. etc.

As I said, I'm not sure if you really want to take this too far. "Awe inspiring" is hard to follow up with more of the same. I'd recommend that "interesting" might be another goal, which might involve the kind of subtlety that you hinted at when you said "players deal with the consequences of their actions".

I'm probably not helping. Then again, I don't know your campaign, characters, or reasons why they did those other things, so I guess my divine comedy above is as probably as good as anything else.

 

[Mark Hope]

I would start bringing the story to a personal level, while keeping the style of sweeping plots that you seem to have been using so far.

What if the gauntlet were somehow tied to one of the PCs through some bizarre time-loop? Perhaps one of the PCs becomes the base evil that infuses the gauntlet, only to be cast backwards in time at a later date. The PC slowly learns of his fate and struggles with the fact that it seems predestined and inescapable - he will become the very evil that they are now carrying.

What if war-hungry factions amongst the gythyanki manipulated the PCs into assassinating their leader, knowing all along that it would cause a war that they have been longing for? What if it was a faction of humans who manipulated the PCs into starting the war? Might this somehow be tied to the influence of Rajaat (who would only be too happy to see alien races like the gythyanki removed from Athas)?

What if the ancient elven city needs high priests for its nascent divinity, and has chosen the PCs to be its ambassadors, lords and exemplars - whether they like it or not. What horrendous threats might it be able to level against them in order to coerce them to do its bidding? What precious, personal friends or family do the PCs have that the city might seek to take from them in order to gain their loyalty?

Have you checked out Dregoth Ascending at athas.org? It's a pretty epic plot - paybe you could customise its storyline to fit your own concepts. The idea of an insane sorcerer-king who seeks to instate himself as Athas' sole divinity should bring a level of awe to most games...