Inevitable Flavor

[Tingel]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/inevitable.htm

I have a few questions about how these constructs of order known as Inevitables are to be understood in regard to the world they inhabit. I have only read the entry I linked to above, so I don't know much about them.


1) How do the Inevitables choose their quarry? I mean, there are a lot of oath- or contract-breakers everywhere, of both the epic and the utterly ordinary variety; the same applies to people who have evaded just punishment for their crimes. It seems hardly possible that the Inevitables hunt down all of them (otherwise only the most powerful individuals could afford to risk living a life of crime, which certainly contradicts the average D&D setting), so they have to choose their prey somehow. Hunting down transgressors arbitrarily does not seem to conform with their lawful alignment very well, so I'd assume they use some sort of system in determining their prey.

2) Do they act independently or are they servants of some higher power? Considering the fact that they are constructs suggests that they have been constructed. If so, by whom? Not all lawful powers share the same conception of justice for example, so if all lawful deities can create the Inevitables then the Inevitables' standards and morals are necessarily relative (which would contradict their official flavor as "enforcers of the natural law of the universe" [singular]).

3) Are they (or their possible employer) infallible? Or do they sometimes erroneously hunt down innocents? If the latter, are they aware of their fallibility and can be convinced of someone's innocence? If the former, how do they gain their flawless information? Is their employer/creator simply omniscient?

[FlyMolo]

I always thought they got built by the forces of Law and Good. Pelor's archons and such.

In order to get an evitable sic'd on you, you have to have done something serious. Big enough to get talked about. Breaking a neighborhood contract, no biggie. Breaking a contract and turning in a resistance army, leading to their slaughter? Maybe.

As a rule of thumb, only cool stuff gets you inevitable-sic'd. But don't betray clerics of Pelor. Pelor cares about them.

Not Pelor. St. Cuthbert would be the guy who would do this. He's big on revenge, neh?

And the inevitables are built knowing what Cuthbert knows, so there you go. They only pick up what they hear after that, but they're pretty smart.

[Frosty]

Pelor cares about them.

I thought Pelor only cares about himself? He doesn't strike me as the kind to care for others.

[The_Snark]

Pelor's Neutral Good, inevitables are Lawful Neutral. Nothing in common there; Pelor has nothing to do with inevitables. Even if he's Neutral Evil, still nothing to do with inevitables.

I've always seen then as separate from any deity. They decide who to pursue based on the seriousness of the transgression; they're perfectly aware that there aren't enough of them yet to punish every broken law, since some transgressors would die of old age before an inevitable was sent, so they aim for the most flagrant or serious crimes. It's why maruts don't bother with resurrection magic; the subject is only prolonging their life, which makes it a minor crime rather than a major one.

As for their creation... bit of a mystery there, hmm? Maybe they're generated by Mechanus itself, or built by a now-vanished planar race of Law (in the same sense that slaadi are a Chaotic race). They're not telling.

[Alleine]

According to the slightly outdated Manual of the plains, no one knows who created the first Inevitables, but they replicate themselves. They reside in the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus. The listed factory, of which there are others, is called Neumannus. Sound familiar?

They have a special group of inevitables that peek in on various parts of the universe in order to find people who broke the law.

So this pretty much says:
1) The inevitables that do the hunting don't pick the quarry, and since they make more all the time they obviously haven't gotten to the hunting down everyone part.
2) They serve themselves, and occasionally higher powers of law that ask them to do some work. No one knows, and the inevitables claim no knowledge of, who created the inevitables. They replicate on their own.
3) They are fallible because they aren't omnipotent, but the fact that they see things straight up as its happening means they're pretty darn accurate, and its not like they just pop in, say "Oh, hello lawbreaker" and off goes the head. They do talk things out... sometimes.

[Reptilius]

1) Like FlyMolo said, you have to have done something truly heinous to get on that inevitable's radar. Maruts don't come after people who get a rezz or two, they hunt down ancient free-willed undead, people who would let hundreds die so that their skin stays intact, etc. In that last case, you might get a kolyarut on you too.

2) Well, the Planar Handbook has a location in Mechanus that is sort of an inevitable factory, but the inevitables are just building more of themselves. I see them as a sort of law "elemental," and their origins may lie with the fomation of the plane. But that's up to you. In one epic campaign I ran, the party foughtt the True Inevitable who led all the others. It was its duty to end the multiverse when the time came. Another one reformed eventually, but they managed to delay the impending end for a loooooooooong time.

3) I guess that's up to you. With my setup, they would not fail, as the True Inevitable that dispatched would have to be infallible to know when to end the world (although it would be pretty neat if the new one was "broken," somehow...:smallamused:...). If their leader (if you decide they have one) is a bit more "human" (i.e. a god), then they might not be perfect. St. Cuthbert was once human, and still has human emotions, although most of them are variations of "grumpy."

[KillianHawkeye]

My take on them is that they only go after the guys that can't (or won't) be dealt with via more mundane methods, and whose transgressions are bad enough to risk upsetting the natural order.

In my mind, they don't serve any particular deity, but rather the pure force of Law. I see them as being formed out of the pure essence of lawfulness the same way that Outsiders just spring into being on their respective planes.

As for how they know their targets, I'd say it's not important. When they complete a mission, they automatically know their next one and set out immediately. They just know. And they're not wrong. Ever.

And if you kill one, a better one takes its place. Because they wouldn't be inevitable otherwise.

[Frosty]

Pelor's Neutral Good

Are you sure? :smallconfused:

[FlyMolo]

I just love inevitables. They're soooooo cool! I'm going to have to throw them into my campaign. It's got a strong law vs chaos thing going on, so that'll be fun.

And I've always loved steampunk. So robots? +1. Anyway, there's nothing quite like a inevitable after the party to put wind at their heels. They're scary.

Also, after a couple of inevitables died/were damaged fighting them, they'd back off and reconnoiter, sending a Kolyarut to spy on them for a bit, then striking tactically. They are lawful and smart, so that's not too bad.

I also like the idea of inevitables forming spontaneously. You pile enough gears in a room, shut the door, and come back a thousand years later, you'll have a geartrain or something. Go away, come back later, and you'll have 3/4 of an inevitable, slowly assembling itself. And so on. And they build each other and such. This would only happen on a Lawful plane, of course. Entropy runs in reverse there. The same sort of thing could happen with elementals. And maybe slaadi.

But yeah, slaad/inevitable shock troops in the war on chaos? Sorcerors and barbarians/ wizards and fighters? Campaign gold, people. The dragons split along alignment differences, as do the traditional baddies. Devils and demons are specialized shock troops. How fun!

[Smiley_]

Speaking of inevitables, I see little mention of the really mean ones in the fiend folio.

Is there someone using a stupid trick with time-stop? Abusing wish and miracle spells?

The Quaruts handle these transgressors of space-time.

And for those people trying to kill gods, the varakhuts come in and tear them to pieces.

As is said, the transgressions have to be pretty serious.

These higher ones do not worship gods, but protect them nonetheless.

[The_Snark]

Are you sure? :smallconfused:

Should have quoted the whole thing :smalltongue: :
Pelor's Neutral Good, inevitables are Lawful Neutral. Nothing in common there; Pelor has nothing to do with inevitables. Even if he's Neutral Evil, still nothing to do with inevitables.

[Hectonkhyres]

In my games, the Inevitables only come into play if worlds are on the line. I'm not talking about the forces of evil conquering your world... I'm talking about planets crashing together or being engulfed by the Far Realms. I'm talking about a gate-spell gone horribly wrong, spilling an astronomical unit of chaos straight from limbo onto the surface of the outlands. Bad stuff.

Thats not to say they wouldn't beat your ass if they witnessed you break an oath... just that you probably won't get noticed unless its something earthshattering.

[TiaC]

Dragon had an ecology article for them, let's see if I can find it.

[SadisticFishing]

Are you sure? :smallconfused:

Yeah o_O Pelor is the good god of healing and the sun!

[monty]

Are you sure? :smallconfused:

Hey look! It's my copy of Deities and Demigods!

Pelor
Alignment: Neutral Good.

[Smiley_]

In my games, the Inevitables only come into play if worlds are on the line. I'm not talking about the forces of evil conquering your world... I'm talking about planets crashing together or being engulfed by the Far Realms. I'm talking about a gate-spell gone horribly wrong, spilling an astronomical unit of chaos straight from limbo onto the surface of the outlands. Bad stuff.

Thats not to say they wouldn't beat your ass if they witnessed you break an oath... just that you probably won't get noticed unless its something earthshattering.

That's kinda what I thought too. Alternatively, Slaadi do not care for good or evil either, whether one triumphs over the other. However, they would like crashing planets into each other and making gravity go the wrong way, make heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects, and have strawberry milkshakes create cows out of antimatter trolls by osmosis, for an example. In a Slaadi run universe, nothing would make sense. Definitions would not be valid for all times. Everything would be shifting and changing.

When things like this threaten to happen, this is when the inevitable come.

[Ghal Marak]

I just love inevitables. They're soooooo cool! I'm going to have to throw them into my campaign. It's got a strong law vs chaos thing going on, so that'll be fun.

And I've always loved steampunk. So robots? +1. Anyway, there's nothing quite like a inevitable after the party to put wind at their heels. They're scary.

Also, after a couple of inevitables died/were damaged fighting them, they'd back off and reconnoiter, sending a Kolyarut to spy on them for a bit, then striking tactically. They are lawful and smart, so that's not too bad.

I also like the idea of inevitables forming spontaneously. You pile enough gears in a room, shut the door, and come back a thousand years later, you'll have a geartrain or something. Go away, come back later, and you'll have 3/4 of an inevitable, slowly assembling itself. And so on. And they build each other and such. This would only happen on a Lawful plane, of course. Entropy runs in reverse there. The same sort of thing could happen with elementals. And maybe slaadi.

But yeah, slaad/inevitable shock troops in the war on chaos? Sorcerors and barbarians/ wizards and fighters? Campaign gold, people. The dragons split along alignment differences, as do the traditional baddies. Devils and demons are specialized shock troops. How fun!

Ooooo, that sounds like a Campaign made of win. Inevitables rock.

Just a quick question though, how many are there? I had thought that there were five diferent types, but I can't think of what the other two are. I saw mention of a god protecting one, so that makes four. What's the fifth one?

[tyckspoon]

There are three in the main Monster Manual (concerned about justice, honoring contracts, and the natural process of death). Two more in one of the Fiend Folios that guard divinity and time/space. One in Sandstorm that works to keep deserts..uh, desert-y. Probably a few more hiding in some other books, I wouldn't doubt; they're not too hard to make up. Any sufficiently universal concept could have Inevitables that try to keep it working the way it should.

[Chronos]

Hey look! It's my copy of Deities and Demigods!

Pelor
Alignment: Neutral Good.Well, of course, that's what he would say. But you obviously can't take his word on it; Neutral Evil gods like him are notorious liars.

[SadisticFishing]

Well, of course, that's what he would say. But you obviously can't take his word on it; Neutral Evil gods like him are notorious liars.

You know, I've never heard that theory before.

That means it must be true! And Pelor has killed all the - ...

Pelor? OH! I thought you meant that other guy! Pelor's definitely a good guy, yeah, erm, good! Healing, Sun! Happyfuntimes domain!

[Guildorn Tanaleth]

Any sufficiently universal concept could have Inevitables that try to keep it working the way it should.

So there are Inevitables that make sure that Chaos stays Chaotic and equally balanced with Law? Interesting.

[black dragoon]

Yeah. Inevitables are basically the Multiverse's way to keep things kinda of in oder when it wants. MAny as far as I can tell just kinda wander till they find a mistakes then...all hell breaks loose.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Is there someone using a stupid trick with time-stop? Abusing wish and miracle spells?

The Quaruts handle these transgressors of space-time.

And for those people trying to kill gods, the varakhuts come in and tear them to pieces.


Your 'interplanar agents working on behalf of the protection of the universe' are my 'endless torrent of XP'.

[CockroachTeaParty]

I too am a fan of the Inevitables. In my recently concluded Eberron campaign, one of the PCs was slain and resurrected twice. In Eberron, bringing someone back from the dead is no easy feat, and after the second resurrection the PCs began to hear rumors of a twelve foot tall construct carved from black onyx, clad in gold armor, steadily walking in their direction...

In Eberron, Maruts hail from Dolurrh, the realm of the dead. They had committed crimes against death, and they had to be punished!

I played the Terminator 2 theme every time the Marut was mentioned or got near. Then, during the last session, they finally fought the thing. It was pretty epic.