They're Killing All My Ancient Evil!

[Amaroq]

My first thought on reading this thread was:

The more effective of the two tricks was a simple illusion.

And whose to say the dragon they just killed off so easily wasn't similarly illusionary?

Now they've tipped their hand to the real Ancient Evil Dragon that they're likely to kill him, and he's mad. It may take them months to figure out who the evil mastermind whose minions are dogging their every plan is, and it'll make for a great "reveal" moment when they see this dragon, (apparently) back from the dead, aroused and ready to fight rather than sound asleep in its lair.

...

But, more sage advice might be, Epic-level PC's require truly epic challenges, and its fairly rare that a straight 'hack and slash' challenge can meet that. Its a very tough 'crux' moment for a DM to overcome, especially one who has typically met their increasing powers by providing opponents of similarly increased powers.

To continue to challenge them, you need to explore other threads. So, you guys have mastered combat? How good are you at running a kingdom? How good are you at political intrigue? How good are you at outwitting a foe? How do you defeat an 'evil' foe who is operating entirely within the laws of the land, but to an 'evil' end - yet, the law protects him, and it cannot be considered 'lawful' and 'good' to defeat him by force of arms? What do you do when some outside force threatens a pillar of your world: the arcane, access to the divine, etc.

Its one of the reason's I enjoy reading piratecat's story hour: he is very good at working through 'What happens when the group reaches insane levels of power?'

In essence, you want to look at their highest powers, and say 'What quest can I create which cannot be defeated by clever combination of these?' The answers to that will probably not be combat-based, and that's a very difficult shift of gears for the campaign, for the DM and the players.

 

[drothgery]

You've got (presumably) bored epic-level good guys with maps to the lairs of Ancient Evils. Presumably there weren't any epic-level good guys before (because your PCs dealt with the Ancient Evils without much trouble). Look on the bright side... they won't get much more epic, as they're running out of things to kill for the XP

 

[BlueBlackRed]

Out of ancient evils on a continent? Move on to the next continent.
Out of continents? Move to the next plane, demi-plane, semi-plane, planet, moon...

 

[Doug McCrae]

Jeez, some of you guys seem to think the players should never win.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

If the players win too much, then they get bored.

The challenge for the DM is finding the right level of challenge for the players.

 

[Crothian]

Jeez, some of you guys seem to think the players should never win.

Of course. If the players win, it means the DM has lost...and the DM can never lose......

 

[DarkSoldier]

Of course. If the players win, it means the DM has lost...and the DM can never lose......

The DM only truly loses when the game ceases to be fun; as long as everyone has a good time, and each session has at least one memorable moment, everybody wins.

 

[Crothian]

The DM only truly loses when the game ceases to be fun; as long as everyone has a good time, and each session has at least one memorable moment, everybody wins.

There are many ways to play the game....

and the in the last statement was there to indicate it was not to be taken that seriously.....

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Rather than going with the "More Ancient Evil" as other posters have mentioned, I'd suggest you go with the "New Evil." It's more sensible that nobody's heard of it until now (it didn't exist before), and it gets away from the idea that there are dozens of ancient evils lying in wait all over the countryside.

So your players killed the Fiend of Blendorag, as well as an ancient evil dragon. Good job!

A few months pass. Suddenly, a shadow falls on an island to the east. A permanent darkness in which the sun doesn't shine. Nobody has heard from any of the island's inhabitants in weeks, and all ships that attempt to dock on the island are lost.

What's happened?

When the PCs investigate, they eventually learn that a dark cult performed a Ritual of Completion, drawing together the scattered essences of the Fiend of Blendorag and the ancient dragon, and fusing them together, giving birth to a new horror of unspeakable power. This...Essence of Abomination...now resides on the island in question, and has surrounded the island with an epic Ward Against Good to protect it and its children (the transformed islanders--the Kaiju template tossed onto various low CR abominations sounds fun,) while it continues to grow and gather power as it prepares to ascend to Godhood.

So now your PCs will need to find a way to defeat the Ward Against Good to get to the island. Battle against various Kaiju monsters when they get there, and finally do battle with the Essence of Abomination as the culmination.

Bonus points if you toss in the fact that a low level adventuring group tried to stop the dark cult, and failed.

 

[coyote6]

I'd go with Pendragon, but I wouldn't even bother tying it to the PCs' defeat of the ancient evils. Make it a genuinely new evil. Secret cult, summoning a Great Darkness . . .

OTOH, if you want to reuse those ancient evils, then, after the PCs have hurt the New Epic Evil, let the NEE decide to strike back -- by turning one or both dead ancient evils into undead ancient evils. 'Cause while Lurking Ancient Evil is great, Vengeance-Seeking Ancient Evil That Will Not Die is even better.