D&D 5E (2014) Tomb of Annihilation - Moral Question

[Flexor the Mighty!]

My Monk has brought this up a few times in game how maybe its best if the dead just stay dead and how the rich should stop cheating death while the poor suffer. He's a nutter version of Bernie Sanders. Trying not to read more of this to avoid spoilers.

 

[Charlaquin]

My Monk has brought this up a few times in game how maybe its best if the dead just stay dead and how the rich should stop cheating death while the poor suffer. He's a nutter version of Bernie Sanders. Trying not to read more of this to avoid spoilers.

Maybe it would be. But it’s probably not best if everyone who dies, regardless of wealth or social class, is barred from its fated destination and instead tormented, exploited, and eventually consumed by an evil god.

Like, I think if your character’s is motivated by moral concerns, then making people able to be resurrected should be a tertiary concern at best; the bigger concern is what the Soul Monger is actually doing to the souls of the dead, resurrected or not.

 

[Guest 6801328]

A really interesting variant of the campaign would be fortifying the place and defending against waves of Liches. (I mean, how often do you even get to use the plural form of Lich?)

Can you survive long enough?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Maybe it would be. But it’s probably not best if everyone who dies, regardless of wealth or social class, is barred from its fated destination and instead tormented, exploited, and eventually consumed by an evil god.

Like, I think if your character’s is motivated by moral concerns, then making people able to be resurrected should be a tertiary concern at best; the bigger concern is what the Soul Monger is actually doing to the souls of the dead, resurrected or not.

He's not the sort to let facts get in the way of his crusade.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

A really interesting variant of the campaign would be fortifying the place and defending against waves of Liches. (I mean, how often do you even get to use the plural form of Lich?)

Can you survive long enough?

There's a reason you rarely hear the plural of lich. They don't play nice together. Figure out a way to bottleneck the flow of liches toward you so they encounter each other and most of your battle is already won after they thin the herd amongst each other.

 

[cbwjm]

I kind of like the idea of a bad guy just being a bad guy. Like, Acererak (however you spell it) just completes his long rest, gets up, looks at the calendar and goes "What evil shall I do today?"

Stopping him does seem like a good idea though, people who were resurrected are slowly dying and the souls of the dead face oblivion instead of an afterlife.

 

[Quickleaf]

Kyuss is terrifying! Nice choice! There's a good 'aspect of Kyuss' and some other Worm that Walks elements written up in Alan Patrick's DDAL00-01 Window to the Past on the DM's Guild if you're interested. On second thought, I wouldn't recommend that writeup of Kyuss for ToA because it is firmly in very highly level territory but it's a good peek under the hood.

Thanks! I appreciate your comments; definitely helped me to keep digging till I found something that made sense. That adventure by Alan Patrick gives me some ideas about how to modify the atropal to give it a Kyuss vibe

Using Kyuss is a really inspired choice. Great idea! However, as is often the case in the Forgotten Realms, a plan like that is pretty much doomed to fail because of some mind boggling powerful NPCs who are entirely capable of putting a stop to such a thing. Granted, there is always the fall back of "But they were busy doing other things at the time", but this particular goal is... really an eye catcher. It's going to set off some major red alarms, unless the party is already part of a counter-plot against Acererak.

I sort of stumbled upon it, honestly. I've never used Kyuss before nor played in a game where Kyuss was used. The non-canon material about Kyuss originating in Chult was what inspired me.

I don't think I'd adhere strictly to FR's canon with Eliministers and whatnot running around. That kind of thinking detracts from the PCs (where IMHO the focus should be). However, I can definitely see a player asking at some point: "Whoa! Acererak and Kyuss? He's trying to do what? Where's our backup?" I have a couple thoughts there...

• There is backup in ToA, but it's not always "nice" (e.g. Red Wizards) and it's not always in the best of shape itself (e.g. Fort Beluarin and others).
• In the non-canon lore, Kyuss' divine ascension was only thwarted by an alliance of couatls, druids, wild dwarves, and eladrin (oddly enough) which took a devastating toll on the allied forces which they never really recovered from. This is seen in Chult where the couatl are few in number & hidden, the dwarves are scattered from their old strongholds & "gone wild", there are no druid circles, and no mention of elves/eladrin (likely because they've withdrawn to other lands or the Plane of Faerie). So the ones most in the know about Kyuss are least in a position to help...and likely think he's been defeated.
• There are very few divine (or super-powerful) beings in D&D with "Undeath" as the main aspect of their portfolio. And they are all evil to the bone. Vecna comes to mind, but he seems to have a non-hostile relationship with his former apprentice Kyuss...maybe their goals are very different...or maybe Vecna secretly is undermining Acerark behind the scenes? Orcus comes to mind, as does Kiaransalee, and Shar more loosely (who apparently absorbed the "shadow of Ubtao"!). Usually, as with Shar, "Undeath" is a secondary thing to the main element of their portfolio AFAICT.
• When it comes to "Death" divine beings there are sooo many, but they are often embody morally opposing forces. For every Osiris or Kelemvor, there is a Baal, Loviatar, Myrkul, and Talona. Tentative allies at best. This might suggest there are competing cleric expeditions in Chult...which actually is an interesting twist that makes sense...
• More neutral-minded undead-hating potential allies may be thinking "maybe we shouldn't come back to life, maybe this destruction of all liches is actually a good thing in the long-term." Maybe – unlike the intro to ToA states, the Soulmonger is not common knowledge & most folks have no idea that dead souls are being consumed by it (after all, most folk have no way to commune with /check up on souls of the dead). Maybe proof – acquired painstakingly by adventurers – is needed before most nations would even consider military mobilization.
• I've found at least one lich in ToA who is opposed to Acererak's plan, and may make for a tense ally. And the Red Wizards of Thay serve the lich Ssaz Tam (sp?). I could perhaps include one more potential lich ally, but definitely a lich makes for potent backup.

Unless, like me, you can't help but see this as the Temple of the Saguaro, which would be quite out of place in Chult.

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I... I... Before I thought it looked like a "key" into the sky, but now that I've seen it I can't unsee it.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I kind of like the idea of a bad guy just being a bad guy. Like, Acererak (however you spell it) just completes his long rest, gets up, looks at the calendar and goes "What evil shall I do today?"

Stopping him does seem like a good idea though, people who were resurrected are slowly dying and the souls of the dead face oblivion instead of an afterlife.

For 99.999999% of the history of the Realms the afterlife did suck, up until the Times of Trouble the Gods did not even bother to collect the souls of their devout when they arrived in the Afterlife.