Hook me up, Scotty!

[ufo]

I need some help. A friend and I are the only to play in our area, so once in a while we swap positions and DMs (making the DMs character a DMPC) to make sure there's always new suprise.

So, I have an idea for a grand adventure, but I need an excuse to have us running around on multiple planes.

Here's the current situation in the homebrew world:

Two larger cities (Leat* and Lenia) are at war. Leat is on a big island off the mainland. It takes about two-three days to sail from one city to another. The PCs have recently been kicked from the service of Leat when a mission to investigate a church failed badly. During the mission, it was hinted that demons/devils/outsiders generally were involved in this war in some way.

The PCs wander off on a small adventure to an old abandoned keep with undead etc. etc.

This is were we are now. The PCs are a greedy gnome wizard, that wouldn't bother saving the world unless it depended on his own life, or he'd get tons of gold, women and other luxuries etc. The other one is a half-orc ranger, which is good-willed, but a mercenary by heart, who wouldn't ever dare to make honest money. But he's a good guy, givin' to the poor etc.

This unlikely mix of personalities will need a good reason to travel to other planes and battle demons, that's tied to a war between to major cities.

Why does the outsiders have interest in this war?
Why was the leader of a church an agent for these outsiders?
How much money will be earned?

I have no idea. That's why I'm asking for your help, foo'!

EDIT: Mind you that I hate clichés, and whenever I accidently make one, I beat it to death and something funny and anti-climatic happens. Don't make me do this to another cliché!

[LordVader]

If they're demons or devils, then maybe they want the war because of the potential for harvesting massive amounts of souls?

[ufo]

A good point, but until now, there's not been any major clashes, and while these cities are the most important in this part of the world, their influence is only (cough) that of a small nation.

But this war could ignite something bigger. Hmm.


(I have a tendency for making adventures up at the spot when I'm DMing, to prevent ridiculous situations).

[Attilargh]

Clearly, the Man Behind the Man in the country which started this war is in league with the Legions of Hell. In exchange for massive amount of souls, he will receive phenomenal powers, immortality, etc. etc. and rule over this land of his for strange aeons. The problem is that he has to perform the necessary ritual on the defender's turf in a suitably magical location. Say, an old, abandoned keep chock-full of the undead.

There you go. If you keep the train rollin' fast enough, they won't even notice the tracks.

[CASTLEMIKE]

For a planar campaign you can use the Blood War between the demons and the devils. Each with agents in the cities trying to align it with Cults using the Fiend Folio Fiend of Blasphemy and Fiend of Corruption PRCs offering favors, power and wealth to the local rulers.

The outsiders have an interest in the two cities because that is where the most souls are concentrated. Easier to corrupt large numbers of souls if you start with larger numbers.

While a permanent gate from the demon or devil planes to transport invading armies would be a violation of the Pact Primeval and allow direct intervention by dieties of the plane a planar march using gates to other planes and the Infinite Stairway for the final leg of the journey to the prime campaign world isn't a violation of the Pact Primeval.

Money to suggested campaign guidelines for your campaign.

I like the Infinite Stairway for planar access at low to midlevels and in this scenario works for high levels.

[ufo]

Clearly, the Man Behind the Man in the country which started this war is in league with the Legions of Hell. In exchange for massive amount of souls, he will receive phenomenal powers, immortality, etc. etc. and rule over this land of his for strange aeons. The problem is that he has to perform the necessary ritual on the defender's turf in a suitably magical location. Say, an old, abandoned keep chock-full of the undead.

There you go. If you keep the train rollin' fast enough, they won't even notice the tracks.

.... the keep we just cleared of undead, gaining the agents of Lenia free passage there, once they have located it.

Good enough. Now I need a way to railroad the PCs into the mess.

[Mewtarthio]

Make it so that victory for either side would be a bad thing, and the best anyone could hope for would be stalemate until a truce is called. Consequentially, Celestials will be much harder to bargain with if a combatant wants some outsider help. As a result, this war has led to a lot more fiends being called to the Prime Material Plane. Throw in some sort of MacGuffin that could help shake things up in the Blood War, and you can add a plausible backstory in which the war itself (the material one, not the Blood War) was instigated by fiends who even now keep it going, ordering any called fiends to pursue information on this MacGuffin whenever they can (restricted by their caller's orders, of course, so it'll primarily involve services in exchange for information) and waiting for some foolish, desperate mortal to open a more lasting portal to their realm.

As far as payment goes, this in part depends on the nature of the MacGuffin. If it's something immobile that requires constant fiendish presence to be harvested (say, a special location, a long-forgotten artifact device, or a unique trait of the Prime Material), then the implications are fairly obvious: If either side of the fiends wins, they'll have to establish a base on your world to keep the MacGuffin in their hands. Naturally, the guys on the other side of the Law/Chaos axis will want to take it from them, and your world gets turned into another battleground of the Blood War (this is a Very Bad Thing for everyone). If, on the other hand, the MacGuffin is the traditional artifact that you can carry with you, you've still got a few options. The artifact itself might be something the PCs will want for its own sake (and, if you let them use it, it'll lose its MacGuffin status). Also, there's a race of fiends called the Yugoloths consisting of Neutral Evil fiends who turn a profit on the Blood War; these guys would be willing to pay well for the artifact (though I don't know where you'd find one statted up).

[Attilargh]

Good enough. Now I need a way to railroad the PCs into the mess.

Escalate hostilities and get them hired as mercenaries to a major battle. A full-scale invasion might be pretty good. The Big Bad's right-hand man will be there to do some hefty magic and wipe out the whole opposition with an Earth shattering kaboom. It becomes a race against the clock to stop the bad guy. If all goes well, the characters die. Kick the bucket. Shuffle off this mortal coil. They, pretty literally, go to Hell.

If that won't motivate them, I don't know what will.

[ufo]

Escalate hostilities and get them hired as mercenaries to a major battle. A full-scale invasion might be pretty good. The Big Bad's right-hand man will be there to do some hefty magic and wipe out the whole opposition with an Earth shattering kaboom. It becomes a race against the clock to stop the bad guy. If all goes well, the characters die. Kick the bucket. Shuffle off this mortal coil. They, pretty literally, go to Hell.

If that won't motivate them, I don't know what will.

In an earlier game with only one PC he was sent to Hell (more specifically Cania), so that would be a bit of a repeation.

[Citizen Joe]

You should make it so that the devils are trying to stop the conflict. Or perhaps the devils are trying to keep the balance.

[ufo]

You should make it so that the devils are trying to stop the conflict. Or perhaps the devils are trying to keep the balance.

Why would devils care about that?

[Citizen Joe]

Why would devils care about that?

That is the hard part. But the players would never guess.

A farsighted devil might note that, if the war escalates, one side would win, thus ending the war. Whereas, if the balance is maintained, death and carnage could last indefinitely.

[ufo]

Nevermind guys, I got a perfect idea.

The PCs are magically forced to join this army, and while sailing on a ship to pillage a defenseless village, they meet the talking sheep BobbediBob. They pillage the village and meet a boy with psi-powers, who hated his village. He raises a spaceship from a nearby swamp. The PCs, BobbediBob and the boy fly to the sun and kills Pelor and take control of the world.

What do you think?