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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7353550" data-attributes="member: 20323">Yeah, I've been slowly wading through the Enhancing ToA thread - some great ideas there <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> , lots of ideas for working out minor details, but I haven't yet found anything that addresses the overarching narrative issues with ToA... These are the questions I'm asking myself:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">What is Acererak's specific motivation in nurturing an atropal into an evil god? And why did he choose Chult?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How do the players discover the significance of the Lost City Omu in way that doesn't devolve to an information dump from a Red Wizard or other NPC?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">How do these heaps upon heaps of random encounters contribute to a meaningful narrative with rising action, forehadowing, etc.?</li> </ul>Ah, I see...hmm...well, without speak with dead being affected...that really doesn't provide the DM with a way to let the player characters know that the Death Curse prevents souls from reaching their eternal reward. And that cuts off a whole avenue of storytelling that could add much needed depth to the ToA's narrative.Thanks for the idea, but regardless of a true Acererak, a simulacrum Acererak, or whatever, the question of motive still remains. Why create an evil god? Is it some twisted need to pass on a legacy that Acererak has developed, but being a lich is unable to sire children? Is the specific atropal actually the defeated demon lord Orcus and Acererak is trying to gain control overall undead everywhere by subverting Orcus' power as his own? Those might be motives I could actually use.AFAICT, you're right. I'm OK with Acererak being a shallow "Evil Lich Villain" who exists to antagonize the PCs. I can put on a Skeletor voice and ham up my role-play of him, no problem. But I do need to devise something more than "Why be a god when I can be a creator of gods?" for his motive. That tells me nothing useful. I mean, after my players answer "who/what is responsible for the Death Curse?" (Acererak & the atropal), the next question they're going to ask is "Why? What's the point of making an evil god & why should we care?"What I can glean from ToA and older adventures about Acererak...(a) he was a half-demon child taken as an apprentice of Vecna despite warnings Vecna received to kill the half-demon, (b) he also became a priest of Orcus in life, (c) he doesn't seek worshippers or godhood, unlike his former master Vecna, but small villainous groups revere him all the same, (d) he collects artifacts throughout the planes, (e) many mages seeking lichdom turn to Orcus for knowledge of the required ritual, (f) Acererak seems to have special hatred for –and/or hunger for – powerful adventurers, (g) he found the atropal adrift at the edge of the Negative Energy Plane and built the Soulmonger to nourish it to godhood.</blockquote>

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