The Death of Eliminster

[Kestrel]

Ok, Ive got a new campaign opening up in a few weeks. The players are all going to be 7th level and members of the Harpers. The opening of the game is going to be a big blow-out, with a Flight of Dragons coming through a rift above Shadowdale and attacking Elminister, much like the Death of the Witch Sylune in the past. The battle will be immense, allowing the players to fight some dragons, but most of the fighting will be between Eliminster and the dragons. In the end however, Eliminster realizes that all the people of Shadowdale will die if the battle continues and casts a spell that Plane Shifts all the residents to another plane, thereby saving thier lives. It will be up to the players to get the townsfolk home. When they return, Shadowdale is a smoking pit, Eliminster is gone, and there's dead dragon corpses everywhere.

I want to do this by the book, sorta, so how many dragons am I going to need, or how many rules am I going to break trying to kill Eliminster? Any suggestions?

 

[Darkness]

A handful (I dunno - maybe 2-4) of great wyrms should do the trick quite easily - especially if they have templates and/or class levels. (Not to mention good tactics.)

 

[nameless]

Given who Elminster's friends are, I'd say that if he were to actually die, he'd be ressurected within hours of apparent death. So he needs to be imprisoned somehow, have his soul trapped, or be in some other kind of "dead plus" state. According to his CR in FRCS, you'd need a whole mess of dragons, probably 30-40 great wyrms. Basically, so much dragon that it gets silly.

That said, I'd also guess that both sides would have some divine intervention on their part. At least one god for each side would want to throw in their hand. Gods going to war is no laughing matter, and a new Time of Troubles might be the result. On account of all the stupidity that such a cataclysmic event would cause, it's probably better to just deus ex the whole thing and have Elminster be gone, with no mechanical explanation why. You're the DM, you can change whatever you want whenever you want.

 

[EricNoah]

The Beast of Xvim template in Monsters of Faerun can not only kill you, it can eat your soul! Post-Xvim, make it a Beast of Bane. That's one way to permanently off a high-level character with high-level friends...

 

[Kestrel]

Well, I dont have Eliminster's stats on hand. I think his stats were published in the FRCS, but that was before the Epic Levels book.

I'm not sure if Eliminister is actually going to be dead or not, Im thinking he may survive, due to Mystra's grace or something, but his presence in Faerun will be missing. Part of the campaign is figuring out the whys and hows of the Flight of Dragons.

I'm trying to aviod deus ex machina, but its looking like I will have to use it. Are there any major pitfalls I can avoid however, to add to the believability of the encounter?

 

[Arken]

Echoing what nameless said about quick ressurection. In 2E I seem to remember he actually had spme form of advanced cntingency spell that entailed if he was incapicitated in any way he was instantly teleported to an other-planar sanctuary where he was fixed up fully

Of course there's no need for this to be carried over to 3E but he might very well give an epic spell to this purpose. Not to mention the Gods

 

[megamania]

oooooooooooooooooooh......boy! That is one BIG can of wyrms you are looking to open. Remember- no Eli and so many others are going to try to take over the Shadowdale region. His presence held back a lot of foes and would be conqueorers. You will have the immediate stuff to deal with then the messier cleanup afterwards.

How long will he be missing and presumed dead?

 

[Kestrel]

Well, the name of the campaign is Harping while the world burns....so I guess that is what Im wanting.

Its been a while since Ive read FR literature, so bear with me. My guess is the Zhents are going to jump on it, moving troops southwards immediately. Cormyr is going to send troops north, to repel the Zhents. The Dalelands are going to shake in their respective boots and try to deal with dead wyrm corpses everywhere while defending their borders. The Cult of the Dragon are going to be busy trying to harvest the corpses for thier own use. The Red Wizards are going to be selling magic items for the war like crazy. The players, who are Harpers, are just going to try to survive.

Did I miss anyone?

 

[Henry]

The Drow are inhabiting the region now, too, near old Myth Drannor/Cormanthor. They will want a piece of the action if the power base falters. Maybe not shadowdale, but some of the dales towards the mountains (Battledale, Archendale?)

Regardless, the Dalelands will never the the same - - if they remain at all.

Beyond that, I'd say you covered the most major power groups who were specifically held back by Elminster.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Keep in mind that Elminster is seriously underpowered for his CR of 39. The massive CR boost from the Chosen template, his six levels of multiclassing, and his suboptimal feat selection make him considerably less powerful than, say, the Cat Lord (the other CR 39 NPC in the ELH), IMHO. The epic red dragon in the ELH (also CR 39, in theory) would defeat him with few problems. Just have the dragon pick up the body and teleport away. El can be fed to a Beast of Xvim, have his soul trapped using soul bind, or any similar strategy.