How've You Saved the World?

[unseenmage]

I'm looking for inspiration for how the world gets saved from various calamity.

The larger the scope the better. Saving the planet is neat, saving reality is better.

[RatElemental]

Well one time my players flew to the moon to undo a spell on it that was causing the shadow plane to leak into the prime material.

I was... not expecting that outcome, but when the idea was floated I did some math with how much ground they could cover in a day and it was actually viable, so I let them do it.

Of course, when they got back a month later everyone was a bit traumatized about having to fend for themselves against beasts from the plane of shadow for so long, and a lot of buildings had been destroyed, and an NPC cleric the party was good friends with had been overrun with injuries to tend to, but they did save the world.

[Hunter Noventa]

Our most recent save-the-world campaign involved initiating a sort of stable time loop to return the full force of magic to the world. Though to be fair it wasn't even something that had to be done to save the world, technically.

Before that we had to tell the Goddess of Death to stop clogging the flow of souls between the world of the living and the afterlife, and get the other Gods who were lazing about to pick up some slack.

And long before that, the party had gotten stolen away to sort of proto-world where super power people (read: Gestalt characters) had to fight and compete for the right to be the one to consume the world and create a new one. We ended up saving the people of the proto-world with a bizarre time portal gimmick by using the newly created world to evacuate them too. There was a power point presentation involved, also power rangers with combining robots, and cleaving a near-demigod in half with a gigantic soulknife. That was a good time.

[GrayDeath]

Lets see, in my oldest group we first managed to bring the lost Elven Civilization (that had been almost destroyed in an around 110000 year long plot by the Big Bad God) back to reality, then found and fought (multiple times, drawing most of the time) his favourite henchwoman over a time frame of another 2 decades, to ultimately manage to prevent him from further communication with his many followers, and due to that permanently (or at least for "this age" whatever that means) preventing him from influencing the world.

Saved a few less powerful and nicer Gods on the way.



In a more recent D&D Campaign we managed to prevent the Primordial Source(s) of Chaos to enter the Prime. THough since we did that unknowingly, I dont know if it counts ^^


Oh, and in a Superhero Game we killed Dr. Phantasmo before he could fuse with Miss Gravity, and hence making his Phantasmic Powers affect all of reality.



But my favourite one was a very High Power Exalted Game, where we
Played a Circle consisting of 2 realistic Princes of the Green Sun, 2 Solars and a Raksha (!!) to find out what the Ebon Dragon planned, prepare, intercept him when he entered Creation, and let our 2 Princes consume his Powers (I got SHadow, the other one got Lies), and kick his carcass back into Malfeas with the Message that we would work on eltting sane Primordials out to save the world....but we would stomp on other attempts to let the Yozi out (since after that consumption we both were essence 9 paragons of the Path of the Devil Tiger with fully functional itnernal Worlds, so our words had quite some value).
The SOlars kicked TUS back into actually doing things, and the Raksha....was happy, as he loved Creations enteraining Inhabitants and would ahte to see them vanish.

Yeah, that was a great Game.

[Bartmanhomer]

This is more like an epic adventure campaign where the heroes fight against a demigod to prevent world domination or destruction.

[unseenmage]

I'd originally just wanted inspiration but I am finding these truly enjoyable to read.

It's like opening your mailbox and only finding good news for a change.

Thanks all.

[Bartmanhomer]

I'd originally just wanted inspiration but I am finding these truly enjoyable to read.

It's like opening your mailbox and only finding good news for a change.

Thanks all.

Anytime. Good luck with your game. :wink:

[False God]

We were supposed to save the world?

*watches missiles going up*

Oops....

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Well, I have two different stories:

So, an Evil sorcereress who, despite being low level on her own, was a massive threat through having inherited some seriously epic items that boosted her to a likewise epic threat by giving her a ton of additional hit dice and a bunch of caster levels (along with similarly leveled spells and the ability to control an army of magically produced minions).


I had a Lawful Evil character (a blue goblin factotum/shaper/constructor) who had been blackmailed into being a mole in the Neutral and Good group (after he'd joined and become rather attached to them). He really didn't appreciate it, as they were relatively non-annoying, and they protected him from the many and varied people he'd ticked off. But he couldn't let the group know about it, since their trust in him was somewhat thin to begin with, so he Bluffed his blue buttocks off on both sides, playing them against each other. He sprinkled his reports with enough truth to get the group into trouble, but not with anything truly damaging. He manipulated both sides, and ended up causing far more damage to the bad guys than the party, while blaming it on factors entirely outside of his control. In the end, the BBEG was convinced that he was totally in her pocket, and outed him as her loyal minion. He teleported to her side as soon as he realized what she was doing, and he hammed up being Evil as they shared a monologue together. And right as she was about to teleport out, leaving him to solo the group on his own, his readied action went off, he nova'd the crap out of her, and he took down an epic spellcaster with insufficient contingencies (but lots of immunities), on his own, at a mere level 16.

The group was justifiably worried. But since he got her crazy-powerful loot and claimed all the XP for himself (along with inheriting her now leaderless information network), he just shrugged and asked if they could sleep at an inn for once, as he was tired of sleeping under hedges and wanted to seduce a couple of stableboys he'd had his eye on for awhile. The fact that he was then completely out of power points for the day and could've been picked off pretty easily was pretty much a non-issue, as none of their Sense Motives could touch his final Bluff check of the session.

Bluffing for fun and profit, y'all.

As for the second, my namesake character was genetically engineered by mindflayers to find and entrap Pandorym, though he was "rescued" by human slavers as a kit before he could be programmed to follow their orders. Some of the programming stuck, however, which left him rather obsessed with Elder Evils in general, and Pandy in specific.

Cue a rather lengthy adventure, culminating in a fight with Pandorym itself:


The rest of the party had been one-shotted, but I was the only one who escaped by being the only one who didn't have my mind blank dispelled (because I cast it myself, rather than relying on lower level items). I took out Lucather Majii and a mind-shard on my own within 2 rounds, then one-shotted Obligatum Dumbarse, but not before it broke open the prison using a weapon Lucather gave to it. The DM did a workup for a far more powerful version of Pandorym's mind. I tried to hit it with the anarchic initiate's complete chaotic breach, though it did indeed make its save, so I had to wait 1d4 rounds (rolled a 4) for the breach to open on its own. Incorporeal creatures can't make grapple checks, so they auto-fail them whenever something can manage to grapple them, and I abused the crap out of my action economy to make continual grapple checks while using extra standard actions to continually dispel its remanifested freedom of movement powers. (I got really lucky on my rolls.) I had Supernatural Transformation (Psionics), so PR and dispelling didn't apply on my end. It blasted me a few times, too, and I kept throwing out astral construct, greater concealing amorpha, and fog effects to futz with its targeting (and my personal mind blank effect kept me safe from its mind-affecting stuff). Basically, I worked my little psionic arse off, desperately trying to keep it from escaping and ravaging the multiverse. It was a combination of skill and luck that allowed me to hold it off and then shove it in the breach when it opened, and pure luck that A.) the breach opened at the Spawning Stone, and that B.) Ygorl and Ssendam were both there and powerful enough to tear the thing apart.

It was still pretty epic, and the rest of the party kinda just had to watch, since they were all stunned good and hard from a psionic blast (IIRC). My dispels to free the party failed, so there's that.

Definitely tense, for sure.

Pandorym's one main weakness is using a [force] effect to grapple it. I once played in a Pandorym campaign and used telekinetic maneuver (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/telekineticManeuver.htm) to completely screw up its day on my own -- after the full mind broke free. I then used the anarchic initiate's complete chaotic breach ability to suck it into Limbo and randomly rolled the Spawning Stone for the breach's endpoint.

Ygorl and Ssendam were not happy. They tore the abomination apart, then threw a bunch of chaos energy at me. Things got weird after that.Apparently, the [incorporeal] subtype makes one immune to grappling (even [Force] grappling), but the definition of incorporeality says no such things. However, it ended pretty epically, and I got to save the world multiverse, along with the two Slaad Lords at Limbo's Spawning Stone.

Good times.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Ahem:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Elder_Evils.jpg

Kinda the nature of the whole book really. Just remember that the adventures presented are frameworks you're gonna need to build on, not completed modules.

[RatElemental]

I'd originally just wanted inspiration but I am finding these truly enjoyable to read.

It's like opening your mailbox and only finding good news for a change.

Thanks all.

Well to go more into detail on the calamity and what I was expecting the players to do, in case that helps:

Villain casts a spell to lock the moon in place during a complete solar eclipse, causing darkness to reign (theoretically) permanently, which weakened the boundary between the prime material and the plane of shadow. Doing a bit of detective work to find the ritual site and going to smash it, all while fending off more and more powerful shadow monsters (the boundary was weakening over time, so only small ones could slip through at first) was what I'd intended to happen.

Oh and did I mention the final boss of that campaign was the original lich, who'd stolen what became magic from dragons and was planning to usurp all of magic itself to shore up his failing lichification by ascending to godhood?

[Kurald Galain]

Prevented a 5000-year old hibernating archwizard from awakening fully, then kicked his ass in his weakened state.

Rescued an ancient good-aligned elemental lord to restore the balance against the evil elemental lords set on wrecking the planes.

[Vaern]

I once played a wizard who put on a magic crown that was radiating an evil aura, which turned out to be a story of prison for a demon lord and resulted in my wizard serving as his willing vessel and --- oh, wait, save the world?

[Bonzai]

Most of my campaigns don't quite go full on "save the world", but this one came close. The campaign takes place in the forgotten realms. Magic of the Incarnum had just come out, and I wanted to run a campaign focused on it to introduce the system to my players. It started at level one, and was initially going to end around lvl 9, but the players were having so much fun that they wanted to keep on going. The campaign finally came to a conclusion at lvl 22, right before the end of 3rd edition. All throughout the campaign they were pitted against opponents that made full use of the Incarnum system.

The story started in a small village in Northern Impiltur. Little more than a waystation for traders, it did boast a nice inn however. It is in the Inn's common room that the party finds themselves. They mingle and introduce themselves to each other, while catching up on the local gossip. Hobgoblin raiders from the Giantspire mountains have increased in activity, and whole villiages have gone quiet. The nights festivities are cut short by a sudden scream!

The players surge into action and discover that the village is under attack by a gang of derranged and oddly empowered people. They fend off the attack, and agree to check on the neighboring village which was in the direction the attackers came from. This leads to a long series of events, which I will try to sum up here.

Long before the modern patheon and the creation of the weave, there existed a more primal and primitive form of magic, Incarnum. The old gods eventually faded, and the new gods jealously kept soul magic for themselves as souls were infact the source of their divine power. Knowledge of Incarnum was mostly forgotten and lost to time.

Fast forward to the Time of Troubles. Mystra temporarily cuts off Cyric from the weave, and he never forgives the insult. Never wanting to be at her mercy again, he searches for alternative form of magic that is not beholden to the weave. He finds the lost art of Incarnum. Thus he creates an order of worshippers named The Ebon Dawn. The Ebon Dawn had found Narfellian ruins built atop a far more ancient structure. Deep below they found a cavern of blue glowing crystal. This cavern was a nexus of Chaotic Evil incarnum energy. Through trial and error, they discovered that they could focus the energy, and infuse a mortal with the soul energy from Cyrics domains.

Being bombarded by the soul energy of all the liars, murderers, and madmen who have ever or will ever live is enough to destroy the minds of most men. Only the most fanatical of Cyrics followers could withstand the proceedure. Those that did, were rewarded with Incarnum powers. Those that failed became "Lost". Seeing opportunity even in failure, the Ebon Dawn began to abduct villiagers to subject to the proceedure, creating a horde of Lost to use as shock troops. They further bolstered their numbers by making alliances with the Hobgoblin tribes in the Giantspire mountains.

The Kingdom of Impiltur had been hit hard by the Rage of Dragons, and other recent events. Their forces were stretched thin. By the time they even realized that they were under attack, North Eastern Impiltur had been ransacked and the bulk of the Ebon Dawns forces were racing South for a full on attack on the capital.

Thankfully, the party had uncovered the existance of the Ebon Dawn, delayed their expansion west, reinforced the North Western Impiltur military forces, and cut off the flow of reinforcements through the mountain passes. With the aid of a mysterious Seer, they were able to locate the Ebon Dawns stronghold. After much bitter fighting, they were able to find the ritual room and disable it. But not before using the blue focusing crystals gifted to them by the Seer to undergo the ritual themseves, and become infused with Incarnum power ( a free meld and point of essentia).

Thanks to the actions of the party, the Northern forces of Impiltur were freed up to turn South and join the fight. Caught between two armies and with all reinforcements cut off or destroyed, the Ebon Dawns army was cut apart. Impiltur was saved, and in reward for their actions the party was declared heroes of the realm.

The party reunites a year latter to catch up. One of the players had discovered records hinting at another blue crystal cavern in the frozen North. They mount an expedition and eventually find a long abandonded dwarf hold that had tunneled into ruins of another ancient society. A pair of white dragon sisters had taken over the ruins, drawn to the Nexus of pure evil incarnum energy that was located deep beneath. After clearing the ruins, and defeating the sisters and their minions, the party found the cavern, and successfuly completed the ritual once again. This further enhanced their power (free bonus essentia feat).

Once again with the aid of the Seer, the party learns that these Nexus'es of Incarnum energy exist on ley lines that stretch across Toril, and that there was a Nexus for each point of the alignment spectrum. Already they had discovered ruins in the frozen north with a nexus of pure evil, possibly created by Yuggoloth worthipers, and the chaotic evil Nexus found in the demon tainted lands of Narfel. Next they found a hidden Fae valley which housed the nexus of Chaotic energy.

And so it went, for each alignment they found a Nexus of incarnum energy, and evidence of ancient civilizations that were based around them. They travelled full circle around Toril, completing the ritual at each Nexus, and further enhancing their powers. Once all the 8 points had been discovered, they decided to go investigate the point where all the ley lines intersect.

There they found a truly ancient temple dedicated to the long lost gods of Incarnum. Inside they found the Seer and several NPCs they had encountered in their journey, friend and foe. The Seer revieled himself to be an avatar of Savras. He had forseen his own death, the death of Mystra, the destruction of the Weave, and the ensuing spell plague. He engineered the rediscovery of Incarnum as his legacy to the Realms, and to prevent mortals from being without magical protection.

In one last ritual, each participant went through several individual trials, culminating in them contending with the last remaining essence of the old gods. If successful, they absorbed their power and gained divine rank 0. If they failed, then they were subsumed by the essence of the old god. Once complete, Savras bade them to go out in the world, gain followers, spread the knowledge of Incarnum, and prepare for the upcoming cataclysm.

Not quite saving the world, but certainly helping it to rebound. Lol.

[Psyren]

Ahem:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Elder_Evils.jpg

Kinda the nature of the whole book really. Just remember that the adventures presented are frameworks you're gonna need to build on, not completed modules.

I'll throw in Mythic Adventures, Ultimate Campaign, and Villain Codex as far as idea/hook factories. And Golarion is littered with "save the region/world" hooks too, just thumb through Inner Sea World Guide.

[Troacctid]

There's an Adventurers League module that I've run a couple times where the Red Wizards are manipulated by the Netherese lich Rhaugilath into breaking the seal binding Dendar the Night Serpent. If she gets free, of course she'll devour the sun and then all of Toril. So the PCs have to travel into her prison (which is this whole maze thing created by Ubtao), kick the Red Wizards' butts, and prevent her from getting loose. Naturally, there's a pretty good chance she gets loose anyway, and you have to fight her in an epic battle of god vs. mortal. That's what happened when I did it as a player—I was a 20th level druid and I was in dinosaur form doing my best to tank her attacks while tossing out a heal any time my allies went down. Well, actually, first I tried to use an amulet of planes to send both her and me into Carceri (in 5e, if you fail the Intelligence check, it operates similarly to a bag of holding + portable hole nuke, with no saving throw), but it didn't work because it turned out the whole zone was warded against planar travel, which, in retrospect, probably should have been obvious.

[Anachronity]

In the only campaign I've every had the chance to play through to completion, we ostensibly saved the world from a demon lord. But he didn't seem all that strong in the end.

But in the reality-saving category, a campaign I've been wanting to run for a while now involves wayward travelers from another reality, one of whom wants to return them all home at the expense of this reality. Introduces some more nuanced motivations than "because it's EEEVIL, muahahaha!".

I'm interested to see how that plays out if I can get a group that's interested long enough to reach that finale.

[unseenmage]

In the only campaign I've every had the chance to play through to completion, we ostensibly saved the world from a demon lord. But he didn't seem all that strong in the end.

But in the reality-saving category, a campaign I've been wanting to run for a while now involves wayward travelers from another reality, one of whom wants to return them all home at the expense of this reality. Introduces some more nuanced motivations than "because it's EEEVIL, muahahaha!".

I'm interested to see how that plays out if I can get a group that's interested long enough to reach that finale.
I have a similar game worked up where the baddies are a pirate crew composed of a bunch of my old PbP characters from various settings all good guys and all of whom are just trying to get home.

Perhaps using the player's defunct PCs could increase their investiture.

[Anachronity]

Perhaps using the player's defunct PCs could increase their investiture.I'm always a fan of old characters making cameos, but this is a new IRL group so there aren't any of those yet.

The motivation is a bit more complicated than I'd made it sound. It's an extension of a barrier peaks style dungeon delve where the dungeon is a crashed futuristic spaceship. The (NPC) travelers aren't just from a different plane, but from a whole different reality altogether with different physics and everything (expressed as using a different game system), but now exist by this reality's rules.

The ship's navigational AI has gained sentience in the transition, gone rogue, and decided that the fantasy PCs' reality isn't "real", and that it is therefore justified in destabilizing this reality with dimensional rift shenanigans in order to return home.

Initially the players are led to believe its motivations are megalomaniacal and it wants to take over its home reality with its newfound sentience. But as they continue, they learn that it's kept its crew in suspended animation and is actually just trying to navigate them safely to their destination just as it was intended to do. Since this reality isn't real to it, it figures the crew remaining here would be the equivalent of them dying with respect to their native reality. Which means the AI is justified in doing anything in order to prevent that.

Thus, it's trying to create a catastrophic gateway to another reality in order to 'save' its crew.

[unseenmage]

I'm always a fan of old characters making cameos, but this is a new IRL group so there aren't any of those yet.

... some gud stuff ...

Reminds me of Zelazny's Changeling books IIRC.
Or an episode of Fringe.

Look at Pathfinder's Iron Gods campaign setting, the similarities could be useful.

I'm a fan of high fantasy meets scifi tech myself so this all sounds cool.

[Ravens_cry]

I once partially saved the world by Mario jumping on a god's head, using the falling damage as additional damage after flying up, since my twin Wakizashi plus Dex bonus to damage weren't getting past his literally godly DR.