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WarKitty
2010-11-15, 10:43 PM
Here's the plot for my next campaign:

One day, for no discernible reason, all hell breaks loose. The sky unleashes yellow rain and hail that is solid and yet burns like fire. Craters appear in the ground; riverbeds raise up and flood the land with black oil. Plants, animals, and even people randomly mutate. Magic items generate random effects.

The PC's are a group of survivors. As they progress, they will discover that this is caused by a conjunction with a plane of chaos. Normally this conjunction is held off by a set of very powerful artifacts being brought together, under the direction of a powerful but bound entity. In the process, however, the artifacts are scattered across the Material Planes (yes there's more than one here). The last group of heroes failed to recover the artifacts, causing the conjunction to occur as normal.

Now, as a player, how would you go about trying to deal with this situation? Because I have no idea at all...

A few relevant facts:

- alignment does not exist. Despite this, chaotic stupid is banned. Evil characters are allowed provided they come with sufficiently realistic motivations; random death and destruction is not a legal motivation.

- the PC's have encountered the artifacts and the head entity before, but were not aware of its nature. There will be sufficient hints at the beginning that there is some connection.

- the group starts at level 11.

- Planar travel is really not that helpful here, due to a non-standard cosmology. Deities are products of humanoid belief and are not that helpful here.

Marnath
2010-11-15, 10:46 PM
What is the effect on spellcasting/invocation use? I know you said it messes up items, but how far does that extend? Are we talking Avatar Crisis level disruptions, or something milder?

SurlySeraph
2010-11-15, 10:48 PM
Acquire Plane Shift (or find a way to navigate planar rifts, or whatever) to go to the other material planes, go artifact hunting. What, is there another option?

WarKitty
2010-11-15, 10:50 PM
What is the effect on spellcasting/invocation use? I know you said it messes up items, but how far does that extend? Are we talking Avatar Crisis level disruptions, or something milder?

Spellcasting should work fine once the actual conjunction is over. Likewise, since they will have been sheltered, their own magical items will function normally.


Acquire Plane Shift to go to the other material planes, go artifact hunting. What, is there another option?

You don't want to look for a more permanent solution?

Marnath
2010-11-15, 10:52 PM
You don't want to look for a more permanent solution?

Obviously research should be done to create a way to dimensionally anchor these artifacts. If they can't be nailed down, maybe they can at least be contained to a single world on the material plane.

Kalaska'Agathas
2010-11-15, 10:58 PM
You don't want to look for a more permanent solution?

I would, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We should be coming to it after the current crisis is over. Research, and lots of it, will be involved. Questioning the 'powerful, bound head entity' will likely be necessary. And definitely dimensionally anchoring the artifacts, if possible.

WarKitty
2010-11-15, 11:03 PM
Hmm, further information:

The entity that is in charge of the artifacts is in fact the spirit of a tiny demiplane at the center of the 7 material planes. Centuries ago a set of powerful wizards, casting on all the planes simultaneously, managed to bring the worlds into a circle and carve out this tiny niche in the middle. The demiplane itself is protected by a shield of the same chaotic energy that caused the disruption. The artifacts, created at the same time, were also infused with some of it bound down. If the artifacts could somehow be bound to stay in this demiplane, they would be able to hold off the chaos perpetually.

However, the artifacts are normally sent out one to each plane in order to prevent the link between the planes and the central demiplane from being disrupted...


I would, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We should be coming to it after the current crisis is over. Research, and lots of it, will be involved. Questioning the 'powerful, bound head entity' will likely be necessary. And definitely dimensionally anchoring the artifacts, if possible.

The current crisis is already "over" in the sense that no further chaos is happening. The effects are still present, but the actual crisis is finished.

P.S. I'm making this up as I go. Feel free to suggest better ideas. The only really immutable bits are the chaos plane, the head entity, and the artifacts.

Crossblade
2010-11-15, 11:05 PM
Didn't you ask this before? Twice. Only the situation was for regular rain?

WarKitty
2010-11-15, 11:07 PM
Didn't you ask this before? Twice. Only the situation was for regular rain?

I've asked a related question once before concerning the same campaign, but that was more about DMing and keeping the PC's focused on staying together and finding out this information.

Edit: That's right there were two. The first was on getting the players engaged and how they'd react. That one was similar in concept to this thread but got pretty badly threadjacked right away. The second was about what kind of changes to make to the world to get the feel right.

Kalaska'Agathas
2010-11-15, 11:20 PM
The current crisis is already "over" in the sense that no further chaos is happening. The effects are still present, but the actual crisis is finished.

P.S. I'm making this up as I go. Feel free to suggest better ideas. The only really immutable bits are the chaos plane, the head entity, and the artifacts.

Ah, I understood the crisis to be ongoing, as its effects were ongoing. Would gathering the artifacts help to reduce/reverse the effects? That would be my first question.

WarKitty
2010-11-15, 11:35 PM
Ah, I understood the crisis to be ongoing, as its effects were ongoing. Would gathering the artifacts help to reduce/reverse the effects? That would be my first question.

Not particularly. The stranger of the current effects, such as the odd weather, should die down soon after. Mutations, land changes, magic item functionality (only for magic items created before the conjunction) will stay the same though. Most of the chaos will at this point be social rather than fundamental.

Cealocanth
2010-11-15, 11:39 PM
Hmm. I'm thinking a nuke detonated from the center of the planet. This should solve that whole "rock placed in the way of the plane of chaos" problem nicely.

Oh, close the plane of chaos? Go on an epic quest to find these artifacts and ask nicely for them to back off. Keep the artifacts on standby, for convincing.

Coidzor
2010-11-15, 11:40 PM
- Planar travel is really not that helpful here, due to a non-standard cosmology. Deities are products of humanoid belief and are not that helpful here.

How is planar travel not helpful if you're bleeding supposed to go gallivanting across the infiniteSeven material planes (are they also inconvenienced by this or is it just the home material plane?) in order to hunt down the Dragon Balls in order to summon the Eternal Dragon to fix everything?

:smallconfused:

WarKitty
2010-11-15, 11:40 PM
Hmm. I'm thinking a nuke detonated from the center of the planet. This should solve that whole "rock placed in the way of the plane of chaos" problem nicely.

Oh, close the plane of chaos? Go on an epic quest to find these artifacts and ask nicely for them to back off. Keep the artifacts on standby, for convincing.

I don't get it...what are you asking to do what again?


How is planar travel not helpful if you're bleeding supposed to go gallivanting across the infinite material planes (are they also inconvenienced by this or is it just the home material plane?) in order to hunt down the Dragon Balls in order to summon the Eternal Dragon to fix everything?

:smallconfused:

Ok maybe not the best way of putting it. I meant something more along the lines of "You're already pretty close to the most powerful intelligent entities in the universe (or will be by the end of the campaign). The Eternal Dragon isn't all that powerful and can't make it go away. Planar travel to go find someone else to deal with the problem is out."

Also there's only 7 material planes, and yes they are all dealing with this.

Marnath
2010-11-15, 11:41 PM
Centuries ago a set of powerful wizards, casting on all the planes simultaneously, managed to bring the worlds into a circle and carve out this tiny niche in the middle.

Now I find myself contemplating a way to drag the material planes farther out of the path of the chaos plane, or dragging the chaos plane somewhere else. I mean, if it's been done once, it can be done again, right? That's how they dealt with Dal'Quor on Eberron.

Coidzor
2010-11-16, 12:21 AM
If the artifacts could somehow be bound to stay in this demiplane, they would be able to hold off the chaos perpetually.

However, the artifacts are normally sent out one to each plane in order to prevent the link between the planes and the central demiplane from being disrupted...

So that solution to the problem would, what, shoot the 7 material planes whizz-banging in different directions in whatever phlogiston planes float in and thus prevent further elemental chaos from mucking up the place but only until the material planes had gone far enough away that they just got up and destroyed by the chaos since they were no longer in this relatively stable zone?

I dunno, first time I read this it sounded like the wizards who made these artifacts and the demiplane caused the need for the use of these artifacts and demiplane in the first place by making them. :smallconfused:

Sounds like you already have defeated the most obvious solution by having it appear to work and then end with all mortal life in the multiverse being extinguished by destroying the material planes.

WarKitty
2010-11-16, 12:29 AM
So that solution to the problem would, what, shoot the 7 material planes whizz-banging in different directions in whatever phlogiston planes float in and thus prevent further elemental chaos from mucking up the place but only until the material planes had gone far enough away that they just got up and destroyed by the chaos since they were no longer in this relatively stable zone?

Something like that yeah. I'm expecting one of their early actions will be to talk to the head entity in the center, since they've already met it. It should have this information for them.


I dunno, first time I read this it sounded like the wizards who made these artifacts and the demiplane caused the need for the use of these artifacts and demiplane in the first place by making them. :smallconfused:

You know that's not a bad idea. Maybe tweak it a bit so the same group of wizards was the reason for the chaos plane in the first place, then created the artifacts because they couldn't undo what they'd done.


Sounds like you already have defeated the most obvious solution by having it appear to work and then end with all mortal life in the multiverse being extinguished by destroying the material planes.

I'm trying to leave options open here while still having a *quest* available instead of an "IWIN" button. Plus I do need an explanation for why they ended up with one in each of the 7 planes last time...

Marnath
2010-11-16, 03:22 AM
You know that's not a bad idea. Maybe tweak it a bit so the same group of wizards was the reason for the chaos plane in the first place, then created the artifacts because they couldn't undo what they'd done.


Bonus points if they go through all the work and effort of trying to find a solution, and at the end they realize the key is to kill the being at the demiplane, because it turns out it is the anchor holding the planes in alignment, and the wizards put the material planes there specifically to have them destroyed. And now it's hard to kill, because the stuff the being has had them doing to "fix" things actually just buffed him.

WarKitty
2010-11-16, 12:06 PM
Bonus points if they go through all the work and effort of trying to find a solution, and at the end they realize the key is to kill the being at the demiplane, because it turns out it is the anchor holding the planes in alignment, and the wizards put the material planes there specifically to have them destroyed. And now it's hard to kill, because the stuff the being has had them doing to "fix" things actually just buffed him.

...I don't see that working very well somehow. Just because it's already been established that even at full health the being isn't that powerful outside of doing its stated purpose. Basically, it can gate things in and that's about it.