World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[Kafkonia]

My characters are playing on Map N & they are high level & what I am wondering w/o searching through 39 pages of posts is that if the undead can't leave wahty happens to one's soul say as in regard to a Ressurrection spell or a Raise Dead Spell. I am just looking for a way to make dead characters stay dead with a good reason for it. Otherwise IMO there is no real danger of dying if you can just be raised or resurectted.

Other than the loss of level inherent in anything short of a True Resurrection? Losing a level can be dangerous in a closed environment like this.

And remember, if the PCs can be resurrected or raised with ease, heck, so can some of the NPCs, right?

But to expand on some of my above suggestions, the necromantic and fiendish energy permeating large sections of the dungeon could warp souls -- either making it impossible for them to come back, or making them not want to come back. Alternately they could be coopted into service of dark powers as shadows, wraiths, wights, or any other form of incoporeal undead.

Alternately, you could rule that the same barrier that prevents people from physically leaving the dungeon destroys souls outright -- or after a short period if you'd rather give your PCs a chance to raise or resurrect. Or the souls could be trapped in limbo -- perhaps the barrier is layered -- one layer lets souls through in one direction (out) but a later layer doesn't, and the first layer is one-way, trapping the souls in a lower-case limbo. Then the PCs would have to choose -- leave their fallen comrades, and the souls of all others who have passed in the dungeon, in this bleak unending landscape, or free them, and the vile entities the dungeon was built to contain?

 

[jim pinto]

I already used a beholder as the true leader of the Spider Kings in Region M. Very cool encounter as I had the beholder on a level overlooking M65. You actually suggested this a long time ago, Jim, and it was quite cool.

The drow outposts idea makes so much sense that I didnt even think of it (my brain never thinks logically). I like that one, actually.

I would like to use the githyanki but I cant think of a logical reason they would be there.

I thought maybe the yugoloths could be there as like mercenaries that were helping the demons in G until the "money" ran out. Now they're trying to find a way out of this place.

Primitive expirements could also be fun. Good idea.

Right now they're all 11th or 12th level. I'm just trying to get them about 13th before they venture to either Region N or down into Region G (which they really want to go to).

Thanks for the suggestions.

the githyanki could be in a prison, just like the one in region d

since they are non-srd, i couldn't make them enemies of the gods, but you certainly can

and even though, they can planar-shift, the dungeon would shut that sort of thing down

 

[jim pinto]

back from the dead

some thoughts:

the dungeon isn't there to house the dead. it's there to house evil

good PCs go away and can't return
evil PCs are imprisoned somewhere

region N would certainly prohibit the use of things like resurrection. the level of evil and spell resistance nearly everywhere (alone) makes the process almost impossible

even so, the gods wouldn't want people bringing anything from N back, so i can't imagine a god bestowing that sort of power onto a PC, unless he/she were evil

 

[Xiag]

Quick thought on the dead

If you die your soul is SUPPOSED to go to the astral plane, etc. Since it can't leave the dungeon, resurection spells opening a gate to that plane to bring back the soul simply come back empty...

or worse...

someone else comes through.

Which is a good reason to have a different dead person in the body of your ex-partymember (giving new level, skills, etc. Tailored to your campaign).

 

[jim pinto]

If you die your soul is SUPPOSED to go to the astral plane, etc. Since it can't leave the dungeon, resurection spells opening a gate to that plane to bring back the soul simply come back empty...

or worse...

someone else comes through.

Which is a good reason to have a different dead person in the body of your ex-partymember (giving new level, skills, etc. Tailored to your campaign).

um

yeah... what xiag said...

(damn that's a brilliant idea.)

how come it took you 1,800 posts to come up with that?

(whew. saved some face.)

 

[Xiag]

(damn that's a brilliant idea.)

Thanks. That actually means a lot to someone aspiring to do game design.

how come it took you 1,800 posts to come up with that?

No one ever asked

But if anyone is looking for other ways to stick it to their players, I'm always willing to help.

 

[Hussar]

Me, I'm in the reincarnation camp. When PC's die, they can bring in new characters by reincarnating their corpse automatically.

If you want to keep PC's dead, then simply say that the Dungeon eats their souls. There's all those haunted rooms with funky sounds and sights. Well, that's the souls of stuff that died in the WLD trying to escape. Anything that dies in the WLD get's absorbed straight into the rock and cannot be freed.

Most of the time.

 

[thecelticking]

Raising PCs

Thanks for all the input guys. I think I'll go with the souls being utterly destroyed upon exit to it's home plane. Muhahahaaa!! This Paladin has got a pesky overpowered unicorn he has had fo the longest time & it's time for old one horn to go. A foolish DM allowed him to have a Celestial Unicorn as his mount & his Circle of Prot. from Evil just keeps getting in the way; not to mention its AC of 35 w/o using buff spells. I liked Xiag's twist of having another soul enter it's body but it's a little too complicated for me.

 

[Dracorat]

Only ~ 1000 views to the 65 535 view mark.

Will the thread break? Stay tuned....

 

[jim pinto]

Only ~ 1000 views to the 65 535 view mark.

Will the thread break? Stay tuned....

i think we lost some "views" when the site went down

we lost about 300 posts... didn't we?