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TechnOkami
2010-10-07, 08:27 PM
What would be a good reason for the Lady of Pain to take interest in and basically command a band of heroes to do her will across the planescape campaign?

JonestheSpy
2010-10-07, 08:34 PM
The only thing I can think of is that there is a threat to Sigil that is being orchestrated from the outside, and once it actually comes within her reach it will be too powerful to stop. doesn't have to be a superpowered bad guy or army, maybe some kind of mystical shift in the cosmos.

PC's job is to defeat said menace, obviously.

HunterOfJello
2010-10-07, 08:39 PM
Start with a fake Lady of Pain and then later on introduce the real one who's pissed off and forces the group to go do some bigger task or else.

Toptomcat
2010-10-07, 08:56 PM
Hrmph. What moves the Lady to action is fairly well-documented: massive, systemic threats to Sigil, people worshiping her, people talking too much about her, gods entering Sigil, gods messing with her dabuses.
But to my knowledge nothing has ever made her personally *communicative*. Mostly she communicates through the medium of horrible, bloody death. And mazes. The knowledge of what the Lady wanted would thus likely be delivered through a dabus...but conceivably she could start flaying or mazing anyone who mentions a certain person, place or upcoming event within earshot of the PCs, and nobody else. Perhaps that could be taken as a...nudge...to go do something about it.

137beth
2010-10-07, 09:28 PM
I'd say the lady of pain is an overdeity. Thus, any threat to anywhere other than Sigil is none of her concern. As for how she could get the player's attention...
Maybe inscribe clues in a maze? If your group likes finding clues within dungeons this is the most obvious method. And that's also a way to keep your players in a dungeon at high levels without them bypassing everything in it via divination and teleportation.

Delcan
2010-10-07, 09:46 PM
Jones' suggestion is a good one. In addition, I believe that Her Serenity personally addressed a band of PCs to aid her in the final campaign written for Planescape, which was followed by the advent of 3rd Edition. So basically, the only canonical situation where The Lady actually called upon PCs was a situation where even if the party succeeds, the multiverse is torn and changed so dramatically that the only way to describe it is to change game systems.

Good times!

LOTRfan
2010-10-07, 09:50 PM
Wait, so there's precedence of cosmological changes being the in-universe reason for the changing of game systems? I thought that was a new thing, having Asmodeus ruin everything by ascending the Hells..... Now I need to do some 1e and 2e research....

nyarlathotep
2010-10-07, 09:58 PM
Wait, so there's precedence of cosmological changes being the in-universe reason for the changing of game systems? I thought that was a new thing, having Asmodeus ruin everything by ascending the Hells..... Now I need to do some 1e and 2e research....

Vecna crashes Ravenloft into Sigil. That's a really condensed version of it, but the main bits can be found in Die Vecna Die! It's also what promoted Vecna from demigod to lesser deity.

TricksyAndFalse
2010-10-08, 07:23 AM
Wait, so there's precedence of cosmological changes being the in-universe reason for the changing of game systems? I thought that was a new thing, having Asmodeus ruin everything by ascending the Hells..... Now I need to do some 1e and 2e research....

In the Forgotten Realms setting, the Time of Troubles triology of published modules was the in-setting transition from 1st to 2nd. The other settings didn't get this kind of treatment.

Sidenote: Time of Troubles modules were both rail-roady and delegated the PCs to spectator status. If you are tempted to locate them, I can't recommend it.

Eldan
2010-10-08, 07:43 AM
Vecna crashes Ravenloft into Sigil. That's a really condensed version of it, but the main bits can be found in Die Vecna Die! It's also what promoted Vecna from demigod to lesser deity.

That. He broke the setting rules of both Planescape and Ravenloft somewhat, but in the end became a full god and used his love of magic to make 3rd ed. Which is probably why WIzards are so much better now :smallwink:

panaikhan
2010-10-08, 07:46 AM
Wait, so there's precedence of cosmological changes being the in-universe reason for the changing of game systems? I thought that was a new thing, having Asmodeus ruin everything by ascending the Hells..... Now I need to do some 1e and 2e research....

This should never, EVER, be done with a running party.
I was a member of a party put through the wringer, changing from 2E to 3E (it was apparently our fault, in his campaign).
We stopped playing almost immediately afterwards, as the 'new' edition versions of our characters simply sucked.

Nanoblack
2010-10-08, 11:41 AM
Really, like anything else in-game, character motivations are up to you as DM. If you want something plausible and you can't come up with any by yourself, there are plenty floating around the internet. That being said, you're more than welcome to take use my theory I posted (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168819&highlight=lady+pain)in this thread.

The Antigamer
2010-10-08, 05:30 PM
Search the forum for threads with the title "planejammer". Afroakuma's games are awesome, and set in sigil with the LoP using groups to send messages to the outer planes. Unfortunately the game ended prematurely, but his last post in the main OOC thread includes what the reason was for the Lady to need messengers, and potential developments.