Weakening an elder evil

[dededo11]

So I have this idea for a BBEG, the Frostfell Queen, a mortal who stole the divine power of a god of undeath and transformed into an elder evil with power over uneath and ice as a result. The problem I have is that I feel like facing off against an elder evil at full power is a one-way ticket to a tpk. Does anyone have a good idea of how to weaken an elder evil with ties to undeath and snow? Perhaps using an artifact tied to fire and/or life?

[Unoriginal]

So I have this idea for a BBEG, the Frostfell Queen, a mortal who stole the divine power of a god of undeath and transformed into an elder evil with power over uneath and ice as a result. The problem I have is that I feel like facing off against an elder evil at full power is a one-way ticket to a tpk. Does anyone have a good idea of how to weaken an elder evil with ties to undeath and snow? Perhaps using an artifact tied to fire and/or life?

How about: using the same method she used to steal power from the god to steal power from her?

[dededo11]

How about: using the same method she used to steal power from the god to steal power from her?

The method she used turned her into an elder evil. I'm not sure the characters would want to be transformed into an elder evil (though that would make for an...interesting campaign from then on).

[Rukelnikov]

The method she used turned her into an elder evil. I'm not sure the characters would want to be transformed into an elder evil (though that would make for an...interesting campaign from then on).

The god of undeath whose power was stolen is quite probably very angry at her, and likely can enter in a power struggle with the queen that would allow the PCs to fight her.

[dededo11]

The god of undeath whose power was stolen is quite probably very angry at her, and likely can enter in a power struggle with the queen that would allow the PCs to fight her.

The god of death she stole from faded away as a result of her stealing his divine power, sorry if I'm being difficult

[Danielqueue1]

Tell us more about this source of power and how it is stolen and maybe we could have better luck helping keep it within the lore of your setting.

[JoeJ]

The god of death she stole from faded away as a result of her stealing his divine power, sorry if I'm being difficult

Dead mortals can be resurrected, surely it must be possible to resurrect a dead deity. Not necessarily easy, but possible. In fact, there was an AD&D module called Dead Gods, where the goal is to stop the resurrection of Orcus.

[Rukelnikov]

The god of death she stole from faded away as a result of her stealing his divine power, sorry if I'm being difficult

Gods come and go, they can find a cleric from the fallen god who can use some kind of ritual. It all depends on what you want them to do.

Are you looking for something they do by their lonesome?

Would you rather they look for a MacGuffing that weakens her?

Raise an army to fight her?

There are lots of possibilities...

[dededo11]

Tell us more about this source of power and how it is stolen and maybe we could have better luck helping keep it within the lore of your setting.

She stole the power of her deity by killing his high priests, raising them as her undead servants, and using them to establish a connection with the god of undeath and used a ritual that stole his divine essence. She became an elder evil instead of a goddess because of the unnatural way she gained divinity. He retaliated by sealing her in black ice, but eventually faded away due to his divine essence being taken. The campaign would have some of her allies/cultists work to free her from that prison.


Gods come and go, they can find a cleric from the fallen god who can use some kind of ritual. It all depends on what you want them to do.

Are you looking for something they do by their lonesome?

Would you rather they look for a MacGuffing that weakens her?

Raise an army to fight her?

There are lots of possibilities...

I don't like the idea of having a god directly intervene in a campaign world. The idea of finding a macguffin that could weaken her appeals to me. Perhaps one tied to Pelor who, as the god of sun and healing, would be naturally opposed to her. If the players found, or perhaps even created, an artifact with his power, it could be used to weaken the Frostfell Queen. This way we could have a god help the players in the battle without having him directly intervene.

[dededo11]

So, how does my idea sound?

[Rafaelfras]

Use another elder evil
Throw Ragnorra at her
😎

[Rukelnikov]

So, how does my idea sound?

It fits great.

What lvl are your pcs? If they are high level and have been playing for long though, you could take this chance to have past glories pay off.

An order they helped in the past may come to their aid bringing knowledge about the artifact or champions to fight off the cultists buying time for the PCs to finish their quest in time.

An honorable villain they spared may hand them a piece of the MacGuffin to clear the debt, or reinforce the seal at least a little to buy them more time.

This sound like a campaign ending arc which I would expect be Tier 3 at least, when I get to what looks like the probable end of the road for a party I try to incorporate things of previous adventures to make the setting more alive, and the players feel that their accomplishments and decisions weren't fleeting.

[Danielqueue1]

She became an elder evil instead of a goddess because of the unnatural way she gained divinity

I think this is the aspect I would run with. It is a common theme in fantasy settings that power unnaturally gained is power unnaturally maintained.

Directions I think could work with aome adaptation,

1 just like liches need to feed souls into their phylacteries in order to maintain their unnatural power, until she is freed from her icy prison, she requires [plot device]. party could interrupt or somehow twist said [plot device] to weaken her.

2 [artifact of plot convenience] whether it be machination of pure order or the god of justice's blessed scales of balance, this artefact has a massive impact against her. They wouldn't work against a normal god who got their power the normal way, but faced with a pure manefestation of [nature/balance/order/justice/karma/etc] she has to expend much of her unnatural power to maintain her godhood. She would still be powerful of course, but now the party stands a chance.

3 for clever players and shenanigans, resurrect her high priests, use that same ritual to have one of them absorb her power, then kill said vessel before he has overcome the power shock.

4 she's been using so much power breaking free of her prison that her other abilities havent been used in a long while attack her before she has a chance to adjust to being free.

Lots of options.

[GaelofDarkness]

The idea of seeking out those priests she turned to undead servants and resurrecting them sounds pretty interesting. Maybe instead of doing a reversal of the ritual she used to gain power, you could say that some fraction of her power remains tied to these powerful undead servants because of it - treated like saints or demigods by the cult if they are active in the world or hidden away in deadly mausoleums to prevent anyone harming the Queen. Or a mix of both!

You could also maybe make it about getting the souls of those priests free of their undead curse and able to move on - maybe weakening the power of the undead portfolio in the material plane and thus also the Frostfell Queen? Or maybe redeeming these powerful souls brings the players the favor of a good-aligned deity like Pelor (or deities plural) and that gets you a specific blessing or macguffin from their high priest/priestess. Maybe it combats a specific ability that the Frostfell Queen has that the players get to see used on someone else for dramatic effect or maybe it simply lets them bypass her resistances. Maybe you get a holy relic which can be invoked once and only once and stuns the Frostfell Queen for a round allowing the party to unleash hell without worrying about pesky legendary actions/resistances or reactions. Personally (and this is 100% a personal preference thing, so feel free to ignore this) I don't love the idea of giving the players a version of the creature with lower hp as their final reward for preparations like that - though it is the simplest change one could make. It just feels like there should be some dramatic impact that the players get to play through and "she's not as hearty as she could have been" doesn't hit that mark for me.

[iTreeby]

1) Find a way to make a warlock pact with said elder evil.

2) Have lots of villagers make the pact with said evil

3) profit

Now the evil has that much less power, what could possibly go wrong?

[JackPhoenix]

Throw her into the ocean and hit her with a ship. If it's good enough for Cthulhu, it's good enough for upstart mortal.

Or teleport her into the sun. That's good countermeasure against both cold and undead. And most of everything else.

[dededo11]

All of these sound like great ideas. I think I will mainly go with having the PCs find a macguffin or two to weaken the elder evil, but if they think of any of the ideas that were presented in this thread, I will happily allow those methods to weaken the elder evil as well. I especially like the idea of ressurecting the dead high priests and redoing the ritual to weaken her, especially since it runs the risk of one of the PCs being transformed into an elder evil themsleves.

[dededo11]

As to what tier this will be, I hope to go to tier 4 with this campaign, but if the players start losing interest before then, I will try to spring this at tier 3. If I do,the Frostfell Queen would be weakened because she expended a lot of her strength breaking free of her prison.

[stoutstien]

This may be an odd suggestion but have you asked your players?
sometimes they come up with the wackiest ideas that turned out to be the best.
.... So can we summon a phoenix and get it to attack the elder evil?

[Ganymede]

Does anyone have a good idea of how to weaken an elder evil with ties to undeath and snow?

Undo her machinations, stymie her lieutenants, overall be a thorn in her side.

It is really SOP for situations where a threat cannot be dealt with directly, and is one of the big themes in the new Dragon Heist adventure.