The Death of Eliminster

[EvilPheemy]

The idea of a massive attack is good, gives the PCs something to do whilst Elminster chucks multiple world-shaking spells. My advice mirrors the "deus ex machina" camp in that it's not really necessary to roll the damage from Meteor Swarms, or make the DC 35 saves from Dragonbreath. Keep your players involved in their own struggles.

One possible scene that could transpire would be El blasting a Colossal-sized red dragon with a nasty spell, killing it mid-flight. Now several tons of dragonmeat comes crashing down nearby, possibly at terminal velocity. Before they know it, the players would find themselves in the middle of an inferno from which they have to escape, and/or save less fortunate souls.

Instead of killing Elminster, I strongly reccomend leaving nothing "writ in stone" so to speak. If Elminster is missing/presumed dead, there are a lot of powerful, heroic folks wandering the Realms who would make recovering Elminster their top priority. Which provides you, as DM with lots of opportunity. Instead of removing just one CR 39 wizard from Shadowdale, you have effectively tied up most of the Epic level heroes, and nearly every other good-aligned person of above 16th level in a mass search and rescue mission.

Leaving the forces of EVIL a window of opportunity to engage in all sorts of mischief. Why, only the bravest of a new generation of heroes could possibly oppose such a crisis!

All in all, it sounds like a pretty solid idea for a campaign. Heck, there is even room for a follow-up campaign when Elminster and Company return from parts unknown, and find all of these upstart heroes who think they can save the realms better than the Old School.

 

[jester47]

Just disappear Elminster. Make him busy somewhere else. Make the flight of dragons somewhere else and have the players hear about it later. Have an attack on shadowdale that shifts it to another plane in an attempt to weaken elminster by neutralising his home base namly his tower in shadowdale.

It will make the players feel better. Shadowdale will be like "Yo Minster where were you when we got sucked into the 9th level of hell?" "Lucky enough there were these guys, REAL heroes who got us out." Make the players the center. Dont second edition them into elminsters little helpers.

Who is as powerful as Elminster?

Manshoon, Szass Tam,Suruppak all come pretty close. And there are more.

Why dont they take out the real big baddies?

He has said it himself: p.84 FRCS Sidebar "The Concerns of the Mighty"

"There comes a time when every student and many a passing merchant, farmer, and king too, demands the same answer of me: Why, O meddler and mighty mage, do ye not set the crooked straight? Why not strike directly against the evils that threaten Faerun? Why do not all mighty folk of good heart not simply make everything right?

I've heard that cry so many times. Now hearken, once and for all, to my answers as to why the great and powerful don't fix Toril entire every day.

First, (paraphrased) The bad guys are just as powerful as we are. We may win but the chances of loosing are just as great.

Second (parapharsed) The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Our actions could cause somthing worse than what we got rid of. Meddling does more harm than good.

Third, few folk can agree on what is right, what should be done, and what the best end result would be. (Paraphrased) When you think of hitting hard, be sure that someone who does not like the intended result will come after your ass.

Fourth, (parapharsed) replacing kingdoms and evil with somthing that you see as good is a lot of work.

Last, (parapharased) the powerful and mighty are in a big mexican standoff. So they all do things through the harpers and the Zhentarim and other sorts of third parties. Elminster takes out so and so, another baddy takes out Elminster, Simbul takes out other baddy, different baddy takes out SImbul etc etc. Elminster does not want to have to look over his shoulder ALL the time.

Right, any more silly questions?"

Thats it.

Aaron.

 

[Sixchan]

The idea of a massive attack is good, gives the PCs something to do whilst Elminster chucks multiple world-shaking spells. My advice mirrors the "deus ex machina" camp in that it's not really necessary to roll the damage from Meteor Swarms, or make the DC 35 saves from Dragonbreath. Keep your players involved in their own struggles.

One possible scene that could transpire would be El blasting a Colossal-sized red dragon with a nasty spell, killing it mid-flight. Now several tons of dragonmeat comes crashing down nearby, possibly at terminal velocity. Before they know it, the players would find themselves in the middle of an inferno from which they have to escape, and/or save less fortunate souls.

Instead of killing Elminster, I strongly reccomend leaving nothing "writ in stone" so to speak. If Elminster is missing/presumed dead, there are a lot of powerful, heroic folks wandering the Realms who would make recovering Elminster their top priority. Which provides you, as DM with lots of opportunity. Instead of removing just one CR 39 wizard from Shadowdale, you have effectively tied up most of the Epic level heroes, and nearly every other good-aligned person of above 16th level in a mass search and rescue mission.

Leaving the forces of EVIL a window of opportunity to engage in all sorts of mischief. Why, only the bravest of a new generation of heroes could possibly oppose such a crisis!

All in all, it sounds like a pretty solid idea for a campaign. Heck, there is even room for a follow-up campaign when Elminster and Company return from parts unknown, and find all of these upstart heroes who think they can save the realms better than the Old School.

Hey, this sounds like a great idea...

You could have the players be unaware of anything happening to Elminster, and hold some sort of 'Council of Heroes' in Shadowdale where everyone is gathered. Drizzt, Khelben, you name it, if they're high level good NPCs they're there. Have the PCs spy in (or be invited if they saved enough people) on the meeting and learn of Elminster's Missing status. Have the PCs temporarily put in charge of something like defending Shadowdale in El's absence, or Counter-Espionage against Zhent spies, and go from there. And make sure they do save the realms a few times so they can Boast to everyone when El returns.

 

[Kilmore]

Another idea... Elminster got word that some of his enemies are about to hatch a plot against him. He takes the opportunity to kill three birds with one stone.

1. Destroy the hitting power of the force that immediately threatens him.

2. Appear to be gone to flush out his enemies and compel them to activate their plans prematurely, and...

3. Discover new heroes to carry the standards for the old, as even he is in the twilight of his power.

This plan will take a number of years, giving his enemies time to expose themselves, and the party time to develop.

Of course the problem with this is that at the end, it turns out that the party was a part of the Elmie show all along. But still, it is another avenue to consider.

 

[DustTC]

I hate to be pedantic, but 'Elminister', 'Eliminster' and finally 'Eliminister'... *rofl*, I hope that was a joke (good one though).

 

[rounser]

Bah, no-one's mentioned Elminster's Evasion, that deus ex machina spell that sweeps him off to Safehold if he loses control of his body or dies or something - go through the contingencies and do your homework before presenting solutions like great wyrms.

Besides, just plain killing him is unoriginal, heavy-handed and lacking in taste. Kill his reputation instead and end the ego trip, that's the only way to hit a Mary-Jane where it hurts.

 

[kkoie]

Bah, no-one's mentioned Elminster's Evasion, that deus ex machina spell that sweeps him off to Safehold if he loses control of his body or dies or something - go through the contingencies and do your homework before presenting solutions like great wyrms.

Besides, just plain killing him is unoriginal, heavy-handed and lacking in taste. Kill his reputation instead and end the ego trip, that's the only way to hit a Mary-Jane where it hurts.

I may be off here, but I don't think his intentions are just killing Elminster off, I believe he maybe be using this situation to put his players in a situation of "wow, if these guys are tough enough to take out Elminster, what the heck can we hope to accomplish?!" You know, overcoming impossible odds.

Or his whole intenntion maybe just to off elminster

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

Bah, no-one's mentioned Elminster's Evasion, that deus ex machina spell that sweeps him off to Safehold if he loses control of his body or dies or something - go through the contingencies and do your homework before presenting solutions like great wyrms.

Besides, just plain killing him is unoriginal, heavy-handed and lacking in taste. Kill his reputation instead and end the ego trip, that's the only way to hit a Mary-Jane where it hurts.

The best way to do this, IMO is for another extremely powerful baddy to Magic Jar / Soul Bind (or something to that effect) Eli's body for an extended period of time while Eli's true soul rots somewhere smelly.

Talk about plot development.

-F

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Long Term Thoughts

If you really want to mess with your players, you could have Elminster's return become an excuse for alot of fun. Just say that Elminster converted to the worship of Bane or Tiamat, and is now devoted to the extermination of life rather then the preserving of it.

If the players ask why he was such a nice guy for all those years, just say that even Mystra's Charm/Dominate spells dont last forever.

By the way, I really hate Elminster.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I remember reading a snippet of an article dealing with the development of d20 Cthulu.

Apparently they playtested him by sending waves of 20th level iconics after him. The old one toasted a huge number of them, but was eventually put down by an imprison spell.

Boy I would have loved to have been on the war council for something like that. Elminster has got to be downable.

The flight of dragons being a challenge for PCs makes sense as one would imagine the numbers are at least there for some sort of distraction value so that El has to take time to shift the plane away and use the most almighty destruction spells.

The real fun comes when the smack comes for the conspiracy that actually put down the mighty El. Anyone who has the moxie to motivate a flight of dragons in a suicidal action like this is going to attract a lot of attention.

The good are scared and angry, naturally, and if I were evil and not in on the conspiracy I would so be pissed. All the guns in the mexican standoff are going to be searching for the new threat and all hell is going to be let lose when they either

A.) find the new target to point at

B.) realize that they can't cover both all the old threats and the new threats.

If I were in on the conspiracy, on the other hand, I would foster chaos by coming forward immediately afterwards, admitting everything I did, imply I'm not admitting everything, play people against each other, and then immediately imply that I am not a threat.

"All we wanted was the death of Elminster, and we are now distributing the loot to anyone who promises to foster random anarchy and chaos. Mwuhahahahahah, our conspiracy, by the way, has been dissolved and I'm going to reincarnate myself as a badger after leaving various clues about where our hoard is. Ta!"