Nettlekid
2014-02-02, 11:18 AM
As the BBEG in a campaign I'm planning, I want a Vampire Lord Shadow Sun Ninja pulling the strings in an effort to spread Necrotic Cysts around the world to build worshipers for Father Llymic, who in turn will be used to blot out the sun and create a Vampire paradise on the Material Plane. This is a long-term goal that the PCs will get to in a very, very long time (odds are the campaign will stop meeting before then, but you never know.)
Vampire Lords are notoriously hard to kill, and almost impossible to actually keep dead (excluding the use of Tippyverse level "this is how we unmake you forever" level killing, which these PCs are definitely not going to know how to do) so I want to provide the PCs with a special kill option. That is, if they venture to the Iron City of Dis in Dispater, in the plane of Baator, they can hunt down and rescue the lost soul of the Shadow Sun Ninja who overused his power of darkness and allowed his body to become that of the vampire BBEG. If they release that soul, then by using True Resurrection on the BBEG, the Shadow Sun Ninja will return and all will be well.
Except that I'd like the Vampire Lord to be really old. Like 1000 years old. Because it's cool if there's been a bad guy throughout history, pulling strings and planning something for all that time. If he's been a vampire for about 1000 years, then you'd need a CL 100 True Resurrection (which, again, the PCs aren't going to have; no, I'm not going to let them Wish for a CL 100 scroll of it) to make it work. So how can I bypass that? I might say that the BBEG anoints himself with Unguent of Timelessness to stop from decaying in an unsightly manner, which would make him count as 1000 days old. Any other, perhaps more tactful, bypasses?
Vampire Lords are notoriously hard to kill, and almost impossible to actually keep dead (excluding the use of Tippyverse level "this is how we unmake you forever" level killing, which these PCs are definitely not going to know how to do) so I want to provide the PCs with a special kill option. That is, if they venture to the Iron City of Dis in Dispater, in the plane of Baator, they can hunt down and rescue the lost soul of the Shadow Sun Ninja who overused his power of darkness and allowed his body to become that of the vampire BBEG. If they release that soul, then by using True Resurrection on the BBEG, the Shadow Sun Ninja will return and all will be well.
Except that I'd like the Vampire Lord to be really old. Like 1000 years old. Because it's cool if there's been a bad guy throughout history, pulling strings and planning something for all that time. If he's been a vampire for about 1000 years, then you'd need a CL 100 True Resurrection (which, again, the PCs aren't going to have; no, I'm not going to let them Wish for a CL 100 scroll of it) to make it work. So how can I bypass that? I might say that the BBEG anoints himself with Unguent of Timelessness to stop from decaying in an unsightly manner, which would make him count as 1000 days old. Any other, perhaps more tactful, bypasses?