They're Killing All My Ancient Evil!

There was a Killer Combo in Dragon Mag a year or two ago that I thought was pretty cool: Tarrasque awakes. Wizard defeats tarrasque (using trap the soul). Wizard goes on to achieve lichdom, using the tarraque filled gem for a phylactery.

Now the PC's find this bad-evil-meanie of a lich. If they destroy the lich, he comes back. If they destroy the lich and his phylactery, the tarrasqu comes back and it's their fault. Quandries are more fun than monsters - at any level of play.
 

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Now they get to beat on the guy who put/ordered those Ancient Evils there! He ought to keep you busy until you can design some appropriate Extradimensional Evil (which is, of course, the next step past Ancient Evil).
 

As someone who reads the Jester's story hour(s) and understands his world and, to some degree, the PCs, I can say that the ideas given here could work. His world (Cydra) is based on the idea that the world is a reformation of an older world (Greyhawk), which was destoyed by the god Tharzidun.

Now, a few of his epic PCs existed on the old world (if I remember correctly), died (I believe), and were somehow reborn on the new one. The world is flat and is made of two major continents (I think) & many island realms.

The world is divided more on a axis of law versus chaos and the heroes have allied with chaos in the past. One of the story hour PCs (Horbin) is a staunch believer in the ideal of "True Good" and has associated with evil characters, in the past.

The characters have defeated some real nasty bad guys over the years and have made enemies of a LOT of different factions. Most of these factions have attacked them physically and magically with little or no success.

The PCs were recently wiped out (in the story hour) but Horbin had a contingency plan in place to be true resurrected. He made a deal with a group of wizard merchants to get his group restored to life.

Another major PC (Malford) is in the process of becoming a god, but I think that he has moved on to NPC status, for the most part. He has made a deal with a group of powerful fey creatures to better protect his realm.

Another major PC (Lester) has built and runs a Temple of Elemental Good, which also acts as a training ground for young adventurers (the School of Adventure). Lester sees himself as the Angel of Adventure, yet to be ascendant. (Lester's player has moved and now that character is part of an online PBP campaign run here on EN World.)

Oh yes, the Jester has just introduced (in the stroy hour) the idea of the warforged as a new force in the world, controlled by the wizard merchants.

The PCs have had to deal with such enemies as the Temple of Elemental Evil, a group of nasty villians known as the Bile Lords, and the forces of Law. Their enemies are countless, although they always give as good as they get.

For me, I see potential in throwing challenges at the PCs that direct conflict won't fix. And in some cases, might make things worse. How's this for an idea?

The ongoing war between Law and Chaos is starting to wear on the minds of both sides. Certain factions wish to bring an end to the war, as they don't see any benefit to the endless conflict. These factions want peace. They have been secretly working towards bringing an end to the violence.

They wish to have the PCs help as mediators and/or protectors during the negotiations, as well as have them try to convince long-time enemies on both sides to cease hostilities. Of course, this has all the makings of intense political intrigue. A neutral site is called for and someone suggests the city of Sigil or maybe even Union, as this is an epic campaign.

Of course, there isn't any guarantee that this will work and perhaps the PCs don't want it to. They could secretly decide to work as double agents in the cause of Chaos or the Greater Good. The sky is the limit.

Anyway, just thought some more details about the Jester's campaign world might help.

Cheers!

KF72
 


Oh, I didn't mean to give anyone the impression that I'm out of villains for the party to face, or that we're not having fun- I'm just astounded that, in the last few months, the party has wiped out several major legendary bad guys.

The dragon was in a magical sleep buried in a swamp. They woke it up with an earthquake, and it had time for one quickened breath and a greater dispel (and to dig itself up) before the pcs killed it- it never got the chance to take a second action.

!!!

I mean, jeez- that dragon's name was on the map ("Swamp of Lithos") for years.

As to the ancient evil not having maps to their lairs- by "lair" I mean "swamp" for the dragon (several hundred miles in diameter), and I mean "island" for the pit fiend. And as to the point about the ancient evil getting that way for a reason- well, yeah... I mean, the pit fiend had an EL 20 group of devils guarding the entrance to his pit, but we're talking about an epic party that divines their best approach and uses it. They are incredibly effective.

Knightfall1972 gave a few details about the campaign above, but the story hour's a little behind; at this point they also have an archdevil gunning for them. No shortage of foes to face! But- and here's the thing that I keep trippin' on- what if they kill, say, Asmodeus?? That opens up all sorts of possibilities... wild ones. Talk about actions having consequences!!

That's my players- shaking the cosmos. In fact, they've already done something like this- quite a while back they slew Imix, the Prince of Elemental Evil Fire. There's a war to succeed him going on across the Elemental Plane of Fire, now...
 



the Jester said:
But- and here's the thing that I keep trippin' on- what if they kill, say, Asmodeus?? That opens up all sorts of possibilities... wild ones. Talk about actions having consequences!!

You mean killing an aspect of Asmodeus ;) Least you gave Asmo himself stats, that is. But anyway they would have a "friend" for all eternety (and then some more) if they actually manage to kill an aspect of Asmo. He will probably be quite unhappy and his next move could be to draw the world your PCs are in into his own plane. Now the PCs have to prevent having a whole world sucked into hell. That should be enough to keep the PCs busy for a while :]
 
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OK, so tjhey wiped out all the ancient evils...how good are they at running a country? Did they have a plan after all the evil was dead or were they just going to sit back and let others manage the world? They are the heroes. The world is going to look to them to run it. They can't combat the famine that is decimating the commoners with a sword. They can't go out and kill 10000 commoners who are rebelling because their food and water is polluted (well...unles it's an evil party...but even so....).

I say let em run the country. They killed off all the ancient evils. Now they have to sit back and deal with ruling and managing economics and.....
 


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