Near TPK with random encounter- need an evil deity

[faceroll]

Ok, so I almost killed my party in a 60' x 40' x 20' room with a Bone Naga in it. Cloudkill, Acid Fog, Prismatic Spray, Summon Undead V, and Cone of Cold are brutal.

The Bone Naga was curled up on an altar at the back of the room, in a temple to some deity of death and magic.

What deity? Why was this temple here (here being underground)? The temple was recently uncovered by orc slaves digging for hill giants beneath their steading.

The party is currently adventuring in Greyhawk, in the Jotun mountains. They are going to fight some frost giants, then some fire giants, then adventure through the underdark, then fight lolth. Currently, lolth is stealing cities and some drow house is trying to prevent her from ascending to greater deityhood or something. I'm sketchy on the details.

[under_score]

Ok, so I almost killed my party in a 60' x 40' x 20' room with a Bone Naga in it. Cloudkill, Acid Fog, Prismatic Spray, Summon Undead V, and Cone of Cold are brutal.

I rather like the brief descriptions of the minor deities in Complete Warrior. Might be useful if you want something that your players aren't likely to know much about (especially since there's only a tiny bit of fluff on them to begin with).

Not sure if any of them would really tie in with magic particularly. Sulerain might work though.

[Teln]

Could it be a temple to Vecna? Ascendiong to Overdeityhood is his grand plan, and he wouldn't be too keen on Lolth stealing his thunder.

[faceroll]

Could it be a temple to Vecna? Ascendiong to Overdeityhood is his grand plan, and he wouldn't be too keen on Lolth stealing his thunder.

Nah, Vecna is too sexy. I want it to be some lost and forgotten deity of something like rot or worms or bone. The kind of creature that festers beneath the earth, like a bad wound.

Lolth's local merging of the Material with the Demonweb Pits are loosening the bindings of its prison.

I really want the campaign to take a Law vs. Chaos turn, with Lolth's bid for power precipitating something far more disastrous. You know, 10,000 years of blood and slaughter before the end of the world. That kind of stuff. Not that that is necessarily what has been sealed beneath the Jotuns, but Lolth's machinations are starting to wake things.

[*.*.*.*]

Kyuss, he fits the bill incredibly well

[adecoy95]

sebek is a fun evil deity

[nedz]

+1 on Kyuss, or better still: make one up.

[AslanCross]

Nah, Vecna is too sexy. I want it to be some lost and forgotten deity of something like rot or worms or bone. The kind of creature that festers beneath the earth, like a bad wound.


Sounds exactly like Kyuss.

You could also go with a forgotten temple to Tenebrous.

[Codenpeg]

Go with Pelor the Burning Hatred? Enjoy your campaign of paranoia and intrigue.

[Baldin]

Orcus deamon god of the undead

[subject42]

I want it to be some lost and forgotten deity of something like rot or worms or bone. The kind of creature that festers beneath the earth, like a bad wound.

There's an Obyrith in the Fiendish codex that would work for this. I forget his name right now, but it's a giant scorpion with a face made of screaming skulls.

[faceroll]

Went with Kyuss, put a sweet artifact for the cleric in the maggot filled altar, and narrated the leech decor with lines from T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men. Worked out very, very well.

Thank you all for your help. :smallsmile:


Above the frieze of the armies of the sun marching vs. the armies of the maggot:
"This is the dead land
This is worm land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone."

Above the frieze of the destruction of the armies of the sun and the entombing of their holy weapons:
"The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the Great river
Sightless,
in death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men."

Above the altar of obsidian:
"Between idea
And reality
Between motion
And act
Falls the Shadow
FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM"

And wrapped around the altar:
"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends"

[AslanCross]

There's an Obyrith in the Fiendish codex that would work for this. I forget his name right now, but it's a giant scorpion with a face made of screaming skulls.

That would be Obox-Ob. Gosh, those Obyriths are messed up.

[Saintheart]

Went with Kyuss, put a sweet artifact for the cleric in the maggot filled altar, and narrated the leech decor with lines from T. S. Eliot's The Hollow Men. Worked out very, very well.

And that's a very, very nice and unsettling poem, which I have now stolen for use in my Red Hand of Doom campaign. Thanks for the post!