How to free captive gods

[Dyllan]

Okay, technically the world is captive and the gods can't get in. A bit of campaign background, which spans multiple campaigns.

A few thousand years ago, the heroes (PCs) ran through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. They were victorious, but Tharzidun's prison was weakened, so they went on another quest to find the pieces to an artifact that was capable of imprisoning a god. After succeeding in imprisoning Tharzidun once again, the artifact was split into pieces, and three heroes were granted the gift of immortality and took the pieces to separate planes of their choosing. Even the gods could not know where this artifact was located, for fear of it being used in inter-god conflicts. They didn't destroy it, because they were afraid of Tharzidun again trying to escape.

Well, Iuz got in on this a bit, and placed magical tracers on each of the heroes without their knowledge. He managed to track them down and recover the artifact, eventually. Iuz, of course, wasn't content with just imprisoning one diety. So, he placed the prison around the material plane of Grayhawk (or at least, my heavily modified version), trapping himself in and all other dieties out. He was suddenly the only god.

A few hundred years pass, and he consolidates power. Eventually, he is slain by intrepid heroes (one was an ex-PC, but all were run as NPCs, and the players haven't learned this whole story yet). Now there are no gods.

Flash forward about another thousand years, and we have present day. There are some rare relics of divine magic - magic items left over from the gods, but religions are mostly without teeth. No magic, no miracles, nothing but blind faith and hope. Diseases wiped out the populations of many a large city, without any magic to cure it, leaving many ruins. What remains is no longer a world dominated by humans, but a hodge-podge of all races, including many monstrous races, inhabiting cities and living together in peace or war.

Now the party is about to learn the truth of Iuz, and the sealing of the gods... and perhaps the PCs are actually ready to accept that the gods may have once existed (they've seen a bit of evidence by now). Their ultimate goal will be to break the prison and allow the gods to return. But the question is, how?

I figure that whatever the cult was doing in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil to free Tharzidun should work to free Grayhawk, except they can't contact any elemental planes to enlist the aid of the elemental princes. Also, exactly how that ritual was supposed to work was vague, at best. I need to outline what was being done then, so the party can research it and find a way to adapt it to their own situation.

Any suggestions?

[Quietus]

Iuz created the prison through the use of this artifact, yes? Well, then use it to break that prison down. From there, it becomes a matter of taste; Two possibilities come to mind.

One : The Heroic flavor. After a quest to control the artifact/pieces of the artifact, they are able to channel its power, using it as part of a ritual to bring down the barrier and allow the gods back in.

Two : The Bittersweet flavor. Same deal in regards to "quest, must control artifact bits", but here it's a bit of a change-up. The artifact is holding the Gods out, but it's also holding Tharzidun in place. The only way to break the Iuz-created prison that's keeping the Gods out is through Godly magic (which the PCs don't have), or through breaking the artifact. Breaking the artifact will release Tharzidun. The key to this is letting the PCs know full well that breaking the artifact will release Tharzidun along with the gods, so while they ARE helping the world, a lot, with allowing Divine interference again... They're also releasing a great evil.

Personally, I'd go with the bittersweet angle, because I think it would cause some interesting roleplay decisions.

[Tehnar]

Question: Will the PCs want to allow the gods back into the world?

-spinoff: Gods are severely weakened due to lack of worship, they started to prey on each other, and now there are only a few (one) left. However only the evil ones survived, so allowing them back into the world is a bad idea. The evil gods managed to contact a bunch of cultists who are working into releasing them, and the PCs have to stop them.

[Ascension]

Question: Will the PCs want to allow the gods back into the world?

-spinoff: Gods are severely weakened due to lack of worship, they started to prey on each other, and now there are only a few (one) left. However only the evil ones survived, so allowing them back into the world is a bad idea. The evil gods managed to contact a bunch of cultists who are working into releasing them, and the PCs have to stop them.

Run it PVP with two parties: one genuinely wants the gods resurrected for altruistic reasons; the other is convinced that party A is being sponsored by cultists in order to free the evil gods. :smallamused:

[Kol Korran]

hhmmmmm, since the elemental chaos was a part of who Tharzidun is, (if i'm not mistaken, i'm realy not up to speed with greyhawk gods), then it would make sense that using pure elemental power, and the help of begins of that pure power is needed to free it.

but in this case different gods are "captive". on the same logic, the group must find "pure aspects" of the gods, in order to may a connection to them and their power (a masterfull piece of craftmenship for moradin, a feat of strength unmatched for kord, and so on). these aspects may seem abstract, but there must be some way to "capture them" (this may require player's inginuity). the palyer's first goal is to gather as many such "pure aspects" as they can. by the process they learn more and more about the old gods... if the party must free the evil gods as well it might be interesting to see how they deal with getting a "pure aspect"

an optional second aspect is to find being who are also of "pure form" of the aspect. this could be dragons, ghost without rest, undead, cut off celestials or demons or devils, or just an amazigly beautifull woman or a wise man. these individuals are the only ones who can realy tap into the "true aspect"s power and create a spark of those gods divinity right here, on the material plane. again, if you include the evil gods, then coming to terms with their representatvies of "pure form" might be very interesting indeed. how would the party gain their cooperation?

now, that the party has divine sparks, they must somehow use them t ofree the gods. ideas:
1- they must get enough people to belive in the power of the devine spark (i suggest you give it the ability to bestow minor divine spell casting ability). if the spark grows enough, it spread through the world, and liberates it. however, the people must truly believe, so the party is required to "make a miracle" that will bolster this faith.

2- the party must travel and find the artifact, and join the sparks with it (like keys to a lock). simplistic, and to my opinion unfulfilling, but might work fine with your campaign.

3- similar to the first option: in order for the god to get back into the world, it must first have a priest. the characters (and maybe also NPCs that you designate) become clerics/ favoured soul by taking the spark into them. you could exchange most of their class levels into cleric's levels, or just some, or have them gain their first level of cleric now, and force them to advance in it (perhaps even forcing some other limitations that show that they are priests). then the party together must perform some age old traditional epic tasks, to prove their faith and the presence of the god in the world. each task should be very hard, and aimed at the specific theme of a god. once these are done, they have proven their fiath, and they are now real priests, and their power connects to the gods and breaks the blockade.

hope this helped, do tell if youchose anything,
Kol.

[Dyllan]

Thanks for the advice. I've set the "prison" up as a sort of shield around the plane that prevents all inter-planar travel (yes, this does nerf a number of arcane spells as well). So, freeing the gods means freeing ALL the gods (maybe even Tharzidun... not sure if I want to open that can of worms again).

I hadn't considered that they'd be weakened. That could be interesting.

I wonder if I could set something up with the divine spark of a dragon... that they have to get the aid of Bahamut... because dragons are nearly wiped out, so that would be a fun challenge... I'll think on it (and if you have more suggestions, please share).

[Calinero]

First of all, bravo on what sounds like a really interesting campaign idea.

I like the idea of there being some kind of turmoil over whether the PC's really want the gods back or not...there ought to be some good evidence supporting either side of the argument. For example, breaking the shield would let a lot of evil gods have power again. However, there are currently plagues sweeping the world that only the power of clerics and gods might be able to stop. Hooray for tough moral decisions!

[Dyllan]

Yes, I hadn't even considered the moral dilemma of allowing the evil gods in as well as the good. The thing is, these PCs aren't exactly paragons of virtue, so I have a feeling they'll decide the moral dilemma based on what's best for them... and the gratitude of a pantheon for letting them back in seems pretty good.

This is my third campaign in this world... and the party still hasn't figured out that it is the same world. The first big reveal will be next session, when they find out about a past PC, who led the party to kill Iuz after the campaign she was played in ran out. I can't wait to see that click in their heads

[Berserk Monk]

Like all problems in D&D, just whine at the DM long enough and he'll eventually give in.

[Dyllan]

Like all problems in D&D, just whine at the DM long enough and he'll eventually give in.

Huh? How is that relevant.

And I *am* the DM. I'm not going to whine at myself (or give in to whining for that matter... I get enough of that from my kids).