Leliel
2014-12-22, 11:31 PM
I got my DMG recently, and I must say, I love the new interpretation of the Books of Vile Darkness and Exalted Deeds. They're the (un)holiest books of their respective alignments, and they act like it.
I also, however, noticed the more effective condition for sealing the BoVD; owning it for a hundred years will reveal the incantation to obliterate it for a millennia or so, banishing it to the darkest corners of the multiverse.
So, here's a thought; the book's current owner is actually a very old, very bitter person who got it primarily to wait out the term required to uncover the destruction word, write it down for future generations, and then blow it up. He's not a nice person by any means (he succumbed to the corruptive knowledge of evil a long time ago, manifesting as utter cynicism and refusal to believe there's such a thing as a fundamentally selfless motivation, so he doesn't try to be selfless), but his goal remains the same.
He's also learned how to satisfy the book's hunger for dark deeds by transferring the task to other people; so long as one of his lieutenants commits an evil act in the course of ten days, the book stays put. Hence why he's known as the Dark Lord or a regional variant these days. Depending on the game, the PCs are either enemies of his hungry forces...or part of them. Depends on how dark the game is (ironically, the latter case may actually be lighter, since the PCs can still preform good acts without offending the book or moderate their "tax", while in the former case they can only stem the tide until the word of destruction is uncovered if they don't want to let a worse evil gain the book).
So, good idea? Want to use it for your own games?
I also, however, noticed the more effective condition for sealing the BoVD; owning it for a hundred years will reveal the incantation to obliterate it for a millennia or so, banishing it to the darkest corners of the multiverse.
So, here's a thought; the book's current owner is actually a very old, very bitter person who got it primarily to wait out the term required to uncover the destruction word, write it down for future generations, and then blow it up. He's not a nice person by any means (he succumbed to the corruptive knowledge of evil a long time ago, manifesting as utter cynicism and refusal to believe there's such a thing as a fundamentally selfless motivation, so he doesn't try to be selfless), but his goal remains the same.
He's also learned how to satisfy the book's hunger for dark deeds by transferring the task to other people; so long as one of his lieutenants commits an evil act in the course of ten days, the book stays put. Hence why he's known as the Dark Lord or a regional variant these days. Depending on the game, the PCs are either enemies of his hungry forces...or part of them. Depends on how dark the game is (ironically, the latter case may actually be lighter, since the PCs can still preform good acts without offending the book or moderate their "tax", while in the former case they can only stem the tide until the word of destruction is uncovered if they don't want to let a worse evil gain the book).
So, good idea? Want to use it for your own games?