Torog

[Riastlin]

What would really torque Torog off? I'm asking because I'm thinking of creating a city in my home game that ends up being pulled down by Torog (much like the city in the Underdark source book) but I'm trying to think of what it would take to annoy him so. In other words, how could actions in a city that is otherwise relatively innocuous (albeit perhaps a bit wealthy) not only get the attention of the King Who Crawls, but also tee him off?

My initial thought was that maybe it had something to do with torture (i.e. the city had a habit of torturing criminals and the like but didn't worship Torog so he saw this as a blasphemy) but I'm curious as to what others out there think.

As always, thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[ppaladin123]

1. Amnesty for all prisoners. A crusade to end slavery.
2. An order of monks that have, through years of meditation and training, discovered a way to become immune to pain and wish to share the secret with everyone.
3. Worship and attempted revival of the primordial that maimed him.
4. The creation of a magical skeleton "key" that can break any chains, circumvent all barriers and disable any prison.
5. A large scale effort to collect and experiment on the blood Torog oozes as he crawls in order to grant power/godhood to an ambitious king.
6. "We are no longer prisoners on this earth!" the archmage cried as he began the ritual that would raise the city and the earth directly below it into the sky.

 

[the Jester]

Maybe a policy of trying to seal off the Underdark?

 

[Infiniti2000]

To get Torog involved would require equal involvement from a competing deity IMO. From a couple of ideas above:

4. The creation of a magical skeleton "key" that can break any chains, circumvent all barriers and disable any prison.
6. "We are no longer prisoners on this earth!" the archmage cried as he began the ritual that would raise the city and the earth directly below it into the sky.

How about a high-ranking cleric of <competing deity> invoked a ritual raising just the temple of Torog several feet above the ground. It need not be high off the ground and several feet might make things more interesting later on. I'd go no higher than 10ft and would think 2ft is enough. Additionally, this powerful ritual (or another one) made it such that no chains or locks worked within the temple. If you chain someone up, the chains just magically slip off or unbind. Arcane Lock or other types of binding (fastening) magic doesn't work at all.

The PCs now need to thwart a similar attempt by Torog (or the high priestess of Torog) on the competing temple, to perhaps lower it into the ground and bind everyone inside for all eternity. Simultaneously, they might need to reverse the effect on the Torog temple, which will be great since they'd effectively be helping the bad guys.

 

[Riastlin]

This is why I love the forums. You guys always help me (and others) out!

I particularly like Jester's idea since part of the history of the world includes a war against the drow, so trying to seal off the Underdark could be seen as a means for defeating the drow, and an added insult to Torog who would feel as though he were being imprisoned that much further.

The temple raising idea as well is intriguing and could provide for some interesting terrain effects during the battle.

 

[Rechan]

My initial thinking was that they were draining sewage directly intot he underdark. Like, there was a cavern right beneath one of the city districts, and they truck their muck and garage and dump it in.

Alternatively, draining a swamp or lake, or otherwise large body of water directly into it, flooding an area.

But I guess that's small potatoes.

 

[Infiniti2000]

To convert them into large potatoes, maybe a super-fantasy approach would suit the campaign? Consider instead, flooding the Underdark with "positive energy" and work out ways in which this might transmogrify the inhabitants. Maybe it's a slow, but pervasive and inextricable process.

 

[kadnod]

I think this veers away from "innocuous" a bit, but maybe the city's rich are sick of their hard earned tax money going to feed and house prisoners? They decide to charm/psionic/whatever all their criminals into good citizens, or turn them into a penal combat legion to go fight an unwinnable battle against a horde of orcs, or ship them off to establish a colony in a terribly hostile land. Whatever weird and unpleasant move the rulers make, this fundamental change to the city's justice system is wildly popular with the upper and middle classes, but hey, why is the city sinking all of the sudden?

 

[keterys]

In the campaign where I pulled the PCs' hometown into the Underdark... it wasn't just their town. Torog was pulling as much down as possible - they just stopped the ritual in the middle of things so it had a more limited impact.

 

[Riastlin]

In the campaign where I pulled the PCs' hometown into the Underdark... it wasn't just their town. Torog was pulling as much down as possible - they just stopped the ritual in the middle of things so it had a more limited impact.

I like this idea too. A power grab by Torog makes sense. He has limited ability to affect the surface world and as such, is perhaps not all that highly worshipped on the surface, so he makes a literal grab for power by bringing potential followers to him. Would XP you but alas I cannot.