Recipe for a Plane Slicer

[deathbymanga]

So, in my campaign I have an Illithid Slaad who has plans to tear the Ethereal Plane enough that the Chaotic energies of Limbo, the Elemental Chaos, and the Far Realm will all flood into he Material Plane.

However, the question now sits on how this "Illislaad" will go about doing this? Spells? I'm pretty sure Gate can't let magics spill over and if it could , having a spell caster just open a rift in the ethereal plane feels impossible for the players to stop since the guy would be casting it from Limbo and they'd have no way of knowing this was happening.

Maybe a Magic Artifact? Well, if there was such a "Sword of Plane Slicing" already laying around, why has no one else grabbed it?

So I thought, why not have the Illislaad actually be attempting to forge such a sword to do his job. But to do so, he needs special materials that exist in the material plane and he needs to acquire it all in time. So what might make some good ingredients for such a legendary sword?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Illithium is a good one - I believe it's often used for divine weapons and it can be difficult to obtain. Maybe alloy it with silver as a nod to the Gith silver swords?

[deathbymanga]

Iridium is a good one - I believe it's often used for divine weapons and it can be difficult to obtain. Maybe alloy it with silver as a nod to the Gith silver swords?

any particular spells or enchantments needed to craft such a sword?

[Ninja_Prawn]

any particular spells or enchantments needed to craft such a sword?

Gosh, that's a hard one... It must have some kind of enchantment, but what? Maybe you could say it's beyond the scope of even 9th-level magic, so the illislaad will have to get a deity/otherworldly power to grant them the enchantment as a specific boon?

(If you meant the Gith sword, the answer is that I don't know.)

[deathbymanga]

Gosh, that's a hard one... It must have some kind of enchantment, but what? Maybe you could say it's beyond the scope of even 9th-level magic, so the illislaad will have to get a deity/otherworldly power to grant them the enchantment as a specific boon?

(If you meant the Gith sword, the answer is that I don't know.)

great, now I need to figure out what kind of God or other would support such a quest on the Illislaad's part. I guess I could just make up some Old One from the Far Realm who's backing the Illislaad, but using Far Realm Gods always feels cheep because their motivation can just be chalked to "They are beyond your mortal understanding".

So, This kind of sword will require some very special materials such as Silver and Iridium (btw where can I look up Iridium for D&D? Google's just giving me real world stuff and homebrew stuff) and some Epic Level boon given by some Cleric or Favoured Soul being supported by a God or Other that has investment in their cause.

But again, what kind of God would support such a goal?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Oh, sorry. Autocorrect on my phone changed it to iridium. I meant illithium, which doesn't exist IRL so should turn up fewer Google hits.

[deathbymanga]

Oh, sorry. Autocorrect on my phone changed it to iridium. I meant illithium, which doesn't exist IRL so should turn up fewer Google hits.

any ideas on what kind of god would back such a quest?

[Ninja_Prawn]

any ideas on what kind of god would back such a quest?

Probably quite a few. The weakened barriers between planes would make it easier for demons to invade, so powerful demons like Demogorgon, Graz'zt or Orcus might be in favour of it. Really anyone looking for power might see the chaos as an opportunity to advance their own cause.

Strongly chaotic entities like Talos and Umberlee (if we're in the FR) might see the plot as something that is good in and of itself, even if there's not much personal gain for them. Chaotic archfey like Prince Hyrsam could take this stance as well.

Old powers that have fallen from grace, such as drow, illithids, aboleths or obyriths could see this as their chance to reclaim dominion over the world.

You might even be able to spin a way for good deities to support the plan, if you're creative enough. It's probably easier to choose the actors you want then tailor the story to fit them...

[ImSAMazing]

Yes. First, it has a melting point of 2446 degrees Celcius. That's a really high temperature, since steel has a melting point of 2446 degrees Celcius. So the crafter should probably have and/or a magical(maybe even an artifact like) forge, made from really strong material with a high melting point(maybe adamantine, again really expensive to make a whole forge out of adamantine).
Also, he needs a way to obtain the material. Iridium is really strong, so "mining" it with a pickaxe would be really hard and would take years, maybe even decades. Also, iridium is often found inside pure platinum, so that also needs to be found and harvested. The harvesting should also require magical mining gear, since harvesting it in the real world is also really hard.

[Addaran]

I'd stay away from divine intervention. If your Illislaad is the big final enemy, make him do everything by himself.

For crafting the weapon, there's a bunch of very good idea already (special materials, needing an adamantine forge or maybe some kind of sacred dwarven forge). For the spells needed for the crafting part, i'd go with things like Gate and/or Wish, Miracle. Possibly teleport, magic weapon, any kind of ethereal and protection spells too. Either he actually learn them or just using a scroll/staff at the right time.

He wants to tear the walls from the Limbo, Elemental planes and the Farm Realm. Either incorporate all that into the creation or instead of making an artifact, he's doing a crazy huge ritual that will open rifts in the dimensions.

Limbo that's one of the demonic planes i think? Maybe have him kidnap a particularily powerfull or well known tiefling. For the Far Realm, it could be an ancient aboleth. And one elemental creature for each four element. If important figures are kidnapped, that could give great leads for the PCs to find out his master plan.

At first, he probably just send his minions for easy to get stuff ( the silver, scrolls) and that's where the chracters first learn about him. Then it escalates to the point where his second in command try to acquire the last few very powerfull items/persons.

[Flickerdart]

The slaad need not craft the weapon. You ask - why has someone else not grabbed such a sword if it exists? The answer - they did and then this guy is trying to track it down, beat them up, and take it. You could have a secretive Good organization determined to hide this artifact of overwhelming power from creatures that would misuse it, an Evil creature that uses the sword more as a threat to keep his enemies in check and never actually taps into its true power, or any kind of creature that uses the sword as a regular sword and doesn't know anything about how exceptional it really is.

If the PCs discover the sword's location and successfully defend/hide it, the slaad may decide that the path of least resistance is to craft his own rather than pursue that one. Then the PCs could even use the original sword to undo the damage done by the slaad's weapon, or something.

[ruy343]

On a different note, have you read the Giant's post on making a good villain (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html)? It talks about some of the issues you've brought up, and might help give more depth to your villain.

[deathbymanga]

Ok, so, here's an idea I have. a Long time ago there was a pretty insane Dwarven Smith, named Dagdar Stunthal, who had dreams of the Far Realm and began pursuing a way to get there. He crafted a massive Great Axe known as the "Plane Splitter", capable of tearing a hole into the Far Realm. He forged the Plane Splitter by cooling the blade in the Blood of a Mind Flayer. The blade has the power to tear a doorway to whatever plane the blood that the blade was forged in was tied to, however the rift is so violent and unstable that it can't clearly separate the two planes and the energies from each plane bleed into one another.

The Dwarf was confronted by an Adventuring party lead by his Rogue of a Brother, Grant, and consisted of a Halfling Fighter, Garth Ghostwise, Half-Elf Sorcerer, Marwen Haevel, and his Pure Elven Cleric Brother, Aelion. The battle was long and arduous, and the Marwen was struck down in the middle of the fight. Dagdar managed to use the chaos to use the Plane Splitter to slice open a rift into the Far Realm and Aelion was pulled into the Vortex. Dagdar was about to join Aelion and claim his victory, but he was stabbed in the back by his Brother and fell dead.

The rift remained open even though it's creator died and Garth decided to stay near the Rift to deal with anything that might come out and to be there in case Aelion ever made it out of the Far Realm. He swore his bloodline would stand strong to defend this plane from anything that might foolishly climb through the rift. This bloodline would colonize a planet that now Orbited the Rift and continuous exposure to the Far Realm Energies left the Halflings telepathic and well experienced in dealing with Aberrations.

Grant on the other hand took the Plane Splitter and retired from Adventuring. He joined the Dwarven mafia known as the Silverbeards and shared his story with the Godfather. Aware of the significance of such a story, the Godfather, Grant and Garth began a secret society to protect against such a situation again. Garth's Clan would work to make sure no danger came from the existing Rift and to potentially try to figure out how to patch up such a tear while the Silverbeard clan would put work to make sure no one would be able to recreate such a weapon again. They started a Mining Monopoly and took charge of all Silver manufacturing. Illithium, the key material for crafting the Plane Splitter was only ever found in mines where silver was pulled from, so by putting up the pretense of controlling the Silver mines, they could ensure no one would get their hands on Illithium either, and they'd still be able to keep a profit and enforce their territory.

The Plane Splitter itself would remain in the custody of Grant and his descendants, the true power of the blade lost to myths and legends after a falling out between Grant's family and the Silverbeards kept the legend from being shared.

Aelion himself did not die immediately after being lost to the Far Realm. No, first his mind was burned away by the energies of the Plane, but his memories persisted. He was soon found by a group of Mind Flayers who didn't hesitate to consume those memories and add them to the brain pool they shared.

Now, a hundred thousand years since, a Mind Flayer found its way into Limbo and found a Death Slaad. The two killed each other, however the Death Slaad left an egg in the Mind Flayer, which found itself corrupted by the Mind Flayer's own genes and became an Illislaad, a Slaad with the head, tentacles and Psionic powers of an Illithid. It was awoken to the memories of Aelion and a vision of glorious Chaos began to form in its mind. The Chaos of the Planes, from The Elements to the Far Realm to Limbo itself, would merge and collide within the Material Plane and Chaos would rule as the dominant of the realms.

First he'd need to acquire the Plane Splitter and Learn of how it was forged. Once he does so, he will forge an even greater weapon, the Realm Terrors, Blades sutured in place of his own claws that were capable of slicing through to the Elemental Planes, the Far Realm, Limbo, and potentially even the realms of the Gods.

To do so, he set about capturing King Emberhart, the King of the Fire Genasi for his Fire Elemental Blood. Three other Genasi or stronger elemental of each element, the blood of a pure Slaad (as opposed to his corrupted Far Realm / Limbo unity blood which didn't align to either plane). and the Blood of an Aberation of significant enough strength, perhaps another Mind Flayer or even a Beholder.

At the same time he has been siring hundreds of Illislaadi from the bodies of Pure Slaadi, forcing the Slaadi to flee Limbo to the Material Plane while this great Illislaad sends his minions into the Material Plane to acquire the materials needed to craft his Realm Terrors as well as a Magical Smith of significant caliber to perform the necessary enchantments needed to perfect these blades.


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What do you think? Good?

[Addaran]

What do you think? Good?
Sounds great. You have an epic legend for backstory, side organisations like the SilverBeards, a big boss, an army of minions and lots of different targets/missions until the final one.
Realm Terrors will be like 6 daggers, one per fingers (aberations can have as many fingers as you want =P) for each Element/Plane? :smallbiggrin:

[deathbymanga]

Sounds great. You have an epic legend for backstory, side organisations like the SilverBeards, a big boss, an army of minions and lots of different targets/missions until the final one.
Realm Terrors will be like 6 daggers, one per fingers (aberations can have as many fingers as you want =P) for each Element/Plane? :smallbiggrin:

Slaadi have extra claws that extend from their forearms that they use to inject their eggs into the bodies of victims, using their bodies as incubation tanks for the eggs. However, Illislaad have claws at the end of their tentacles as well that they can use instead of their forearm claws, so he uses those to plant his eggs.

Now I just need a name for this Boss