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Soul Scourge Discussion
CAMPAIGN> Dunstrand Rising is a Living World campaign set in Grand Duchy of Dunstrand in the Steel Realms of the [Fantasy] Steel Realms Setting (planet of Helca).
CHRONICLE: Feather’s Rise > (Second Era of Feather)…
THIS COVERS THE GM AND PLAYER DISCUSSION ON THE NEXT PHASE OF THE SOUL SCCOURGE
PART #1 Direct or Indirect
Background Information: The Soul Scourge is a eating away at life and spirit across the entire world of Helca. It affects every living creature. Its slowly weakening bodies, minds, and the Essence of everything. Gruxxand the Necromancer discovered a new path to Lichdom that did not either involve isolation and a long trial of pain and agony, or a cold Bargain to the Lich Lords. He found a way to tap into Mog Creoch, the Great Worm – devourer of all things – as an anchor point to undeath. The goal of Gruxxand the Necromancer was originally to live forever, even if at the expense of everything else. He has been corrupted, or perhaps it was the plan of Mog Creoch all along, but now he wishes to cleans the world of life. Now he seeks to eradicate all other life. The spirit of the worm inhabits him and he will stop at nothing to turn the entire face of the planet into a cleansed, pristine rock where nothing lives. There can be no death, because there is no life. Ultimately he will be as a God. And when his work is done, the great worm will swallow him – blessing him with an ending. “Bleached bones, sundered skulls, eviscerated bags of flesh. Beautiful death everlasting, impervious to time. These things are pleasing and I will fill the world with them!” He is the enemy of undeath and all life now.
Specifics aside (which characters, etc.), would you be interested in participating in an attempt to end or alter the Soul Scourge? Its a “down the road” item – at least 6 months in-game; I want to return to the campaign characters and process the treasure hunt before anything else. Lots of prep if you chose to do so. It MUST be unanimous for me to contemplate running it involving players it in any way.
RESULT = Unanimous!
In this, i am including ALL active discord members, but i am only counting the votes of the current PC party members.
Specifics aside (which characters, etc.), would you be prefer to participate directly (using characters, engaged in battle) or indirectly (being advisors on a council, risking permanent reputation/standing in the community)?
DIRECT: Three different levels of danger/possible involvement – ONLY ONE OF WHICH WOULD INVOLVE THE CAMPAIGN CHARACTERS (VERY DANGEROUS!). The other two party options includes an evil party working for the Lich Lords, or a band of heroes of the realm in service to the High King’s agents; Worst outcome is death.
- Resolution would be combat. One group of characters. 18th level if created, the PC campaign characters if not. If the PCs, you will be given an means of defeating the target – but it would come down to tactics, not brute force, to get close enough.
INDIRECT: A semi-scripted approach wherein you have a say in what happens (planning and organizing), but do not jeopardize your characters directly; You risk your reputation; Worst outcome is ruined reputation, exile and universal condemnation (your characters are done/retired barring some crazy idea) and the loss of others’ lives and materials on the battlefield in the combat resolution.
- Resolution would be be asking a series of questions to the PCs and allowing them to advocate for the use of items from the Hall of Heroes. Also, tactics could be advocated in addition to selecting what amounts to a ‘squire’ for each participant from a list of them, each one with a value unknown to the PCs that will have a net positive or negative impact. The GM will then run the battle offline.
Final Option
Do nothing. Wait, see what happens. It will take a long time for him to devour the world.
Ideas So far
Mission: Kill anything you can related to him.
REWARDS
Family/next of kin (or whoever designate – a will must be made) will inherit the reward if they are dead.
They can be guaranteed to pass into an afterlife; The House of the Dead will not be barred to them.
They can be guaranteed to give forever rest – as long as there is victory, no fallen member can be returned as undead.
One character can be returned to life if there is victory.
DIRECT OPTION: PC main characters
No backup characters of same level like Killing Mendollin; Motivation = retirement? land (Grand Barony), peerage title (Baron) – who knows?
The High King and sisterhood behind the throne will NOT endorse Dunstrand Rising campaign characters doing this. It is a suicide mission for such low level, even if there is a slight chance. They will not be seen to encourage it or reward it so others do not follow suit and throw their lives away.
DIRECT OPTION: Made Characters – Good
18th level non-evil characters; High King agents. Limits: 2014 PHB class/race.
> Motivation = retirement; land (Grand Barony), peerage title (Baron);
Mission: Kill Gruxxand + deal with his minions. The Lich is the highest entity to take down, but the released power of Mog Creoch must also be fought.
DIRECT OPTION: Made Characters – Evil
18th level evil characters; Lich Lord agents. Limits: 2014 PHB class/race. Monster options: Vampire & Lich options – both per Monster Manual exactly https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Lich / https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Vampire
> Motivation = free of the thrall bond of the Cold Bargain made with the Lich Lords; Mission: Kill Gruxxand. Nothing else matters. Whatever fate his minions inflict on the rest of the lands only serves the cold masters. The Lords of Winter will restore any downed servants after the battle as long as they are not permanently destroyed. The gift of undeath without the Cold Bargain will be theirs, and the release of the Cold Bargain for existing thralls.
OUTCOME = YES (Unanimous )
PART #2: APPROACH TO SOLVING SOUL SCOURGE
Ok. The next poll will be the actual approach to solving the problem/outcome. There will be essentially three different approaches if dealt with DIRECTLY, with three different levels of danger/possible involvement – ONLY ONE OF WHICH WOULD INVOLVE THE CAMPAIGN CHARACTERS (VERY DANGEROUS!). I will work on detailing them before presenting them. In game terms, we are talking probably a half a game year down the road. I want to return to the campaign characters and process the treasure hunt before anything else. The other options is a INDIRECT scripted approach wherein you have say in what happens, but do not jeopardize your characters directly (although you could turn your reputation into shit, and even be forced out if it goes truly bad).
Q’s
How would being advisors on a council to handle the Soul Scourge work? Who would be doing the actual ending/altering of the Soul Scourge, then? = You don’t know. I’m not going to do all the work to plot everything out ahead of time. Only to have to throw away a whole lot of it. Really It’s just choose direct or indirect and rely on me to do a decent job of it.
- Alright. Brother Eulogy will definetly want to be involved, but my worry is timeline. I ‘cheated’ and had a throwaway 1-shot character for Mendollin, I feel I need some skin in the game for this next part.
- Bear in mind. Being directly or indirectly involved does not mean our campaign characters have anything to do with it. It’s playing the encounter vs having a hand in it.
- As I noted, it’s at least 6 months game time in the future
- The player points at myself wants to as hands-on as possible, and dicking the lich lords over is Brother Eulogy’s ‘higher purpose’, as it were. (Intentional god/cleric pun)
- Ending/hindering the soul scourge is helpful to the Lich Lords.
- In a weird way true; Ultimately, helping the living has a higher priority than harming the undead
- I assumed the lich lords were behind it, directly tapping into the ending of sentient life as a fuel conversion, using death as power?
No. Mog Creoch is behind it. The necromancer broke every previous known pathway to becoming a lich and paved away for the great worm to serve as the anchor for eternal unlife. But they’re necromancer was corrupted. Now he seeks to eradicate all other life. The spirit of the worm inhabits him and he will stop at nothing to turn the entire face of the planet into a cleansed, pristine Rock where nothing lives
Ultimately he is as a God. And when his work is done, the great worm will swallow him. Bleached bones, sundered skulls, eviscerated bags of flesh. Beautiful death everlasting, impervious to time. These things are pleasing and I will fill the world with them!
- Brother Eulogy wishes to stop this necromancer, too. Death most assuredly has it’s place, but there must be balance betwixt birth and death, creation and destruction, life and unlife.
- I would like to point out something a currently dead Gallant once said to her comrades on this very subject: Dont commit suicide and give this necromancer more power over stubborn principles. Do what you can to aid those actually capable of fixing the problem. – Pulled that from a messenger thread, quoting Star from the LAST time members of our party thought attacking this guy while he was prepared was a good idea.
- A direct attack isn’t necessarily with your characters. If you choose the direct option, you will be given three different options. That was stated in the edited message before the poll.
- Right right right. I’d still rather see it done personally than form a government committee and talk about it, then pass it off to our competition. Cuz whomever does it if we don’t, the baron ‘ll grab ankle for them.
- Any group of 18th level characters has gone beyond what I’d call our competition.
Well I hadn’t put that forward yet. But if it’s not the campaign characters then that’s what it would be. Look you have to rely on me to create scenarios that are appropriately challenging. You can’t then I would suggest you let me know what I’m doing wrong and I’ll try and correct it. It’s the principal that you are voting on, direct or indirect. Not everyone has voted yet. However, the voting stands as not unanimous. That means I’ll just script it
What approach would you rather take? A direct (using characters, engaged in battle and risking your life) or indirect (being advisors on a council, risking permanent reputation/standing in the community)
RESULT = NOT Unanimous! There is no consensus. You will have no role, it will be scripted out.