skycycle blues
2012-08-03, 07:31 PM
In the near future in the game that I am DMing, a cult of Illumians is attempting to collapse the Plane of Shadow into the Material Plane while simultaneously calling an evil Shadow God who had been trapped between the two planes so that it may fight off some forces that want to eat reality.
In my head, the whole thing plays out like this:
-One of my players is met by an outcast Illumian who is a Jade Phoenix Mage, who then awakens him and informs him that this must be stopped.
-They rush to the city where this will be happening, but before they can get there, they see that the city is surrounded by a shadowy dome that seems to let very little sunlight through it.
-Upon entering the dome, (which I would like to require some sort of save to avoid some kind of danger) they are simultaneously in the Plane of Shadow and the Material Plane. All of the citizens of the city have died, with no detectable cause of death. The city will be populated by shadowy monsters roaming around.
-In the Treasury of the Castle, there is a a recurring NPC villain overseeing some sort of ritual involving massive amounts of stolen goods and gold disappearing while ever thickening shadows appear in their place. There is some set of arbitrary statues or crystals or staffs or something that must be carefully maintained to make sure the ritual doesn't end prematurely.
-Regardless of how my PCs fare, the Plane of Shadow will ultimately fail to actually collapse onto the Material Plane, but depending on how things go, the Shadow God might actually appear and then disappear to leave them wondering if it actually managed to escape its prison.
Are there any rules somewhere that might help me figure out how I should do the specifics of this: the things like what the effects of trying to breach the shadow might be, the worth of all of the goods that are being sacrificed, any specific items that might fit into this kind of ritual? If not, any suggestions for what sounds reasonable so that it doesn't just end up being whatever I think sounds good before hand.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
In my head, the whole thing plays out like this:
-One of my players is met by an outcast Illumian who is a Jade Phoenix Mage, who then awakens him and informs him that this must be stopped.
-They rush to the city where this will be happening, but before they can get there, they see that the city is surrounded by a shadowy dome that seems to let very little sunlight through it.
-Upon entering the dome, (which I would like to require some sort of save to avoid some kind of danger) they are simultaneously in the Plane of Shadow and the Material Plane. All of the citizens of the city have died, with no detectable cause of death. The city will be populated by shadowy monsters roaming around.
-In the Treasury of the Castle, there is a a recurring NPC villain overseeing some sort of ritual involving massive amounts of stolen goods and gold disappearing while ever thickening shadows appear in their place. There is some set of arbitrary statues or crystals or staffs or something that must be carefully maintained to make sure the ritual doesn't end prematurely.
-Regardless of how my PCs fare, the Plane of Shadow will ultimately fail to actually collapse onto the Material Plane, but depending on how things go, the Shadow God might actually appear and then disappear to leave them wondering if it actually managed to escape its prison.
Are there any rules somewhere that might help me figure out how I should do the specifics of this: the things like what the effects of trying to breach the shadow might be, the worth of all of the goods that are being sacrificed, any specific items that might fit into this kind of ritual? If not, any suggestions for what sounds reasonable so that it doesn't just end up being whatever I think sounds good before hand.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.