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Numerous people have complained on the boards about the way Eligos is handily killed off and quickly brought back to life--it's a plot hook that seems very forced to many of us, even those who are used to regular raisings of the dead.
I just had an inspiration that will eliminate this hiccup in my campaign without messing up the attached plot hooks, and thought I'd share, for those who are still looking for a satisfactory alternative.
encounter description-- When the PCs arrive at Eligos' house, they find that no one answers the doorbell. The exterior doors are locked, but a first floor window on the side of the house shows clear signs of a housebreak. Inside, the PCs find Pollard lying dead in the kitchen, with his throat cut. A pie is baking in the oven and a cucumber lies on the cutting board, half of it cut into thin slices. Pollard's master is nowhere to be found, but he must have been in his study recently, as a candle of sealing wax still burns at his desk, where he was writing a letter. There is a copious puddle of fresh blood on the floor, and a bloody trail of footprints leads across the room, ending in front of a tall scroll-rack. *encounter description ends.
The letter on the desk is the unfinished letter to Allustan, and next to it is the pile of evidence that he was planning to return to the PCs this evening. Okoral beat them by a few minutes. Eligos was badly wounded, but survived Okoral's death attack, and used a teleport scroll he had handy in his study to escape to Magepoint. At the DM's discretion, Okoral might still be hiding in the house. This would be a good encounter--potentially deadly but not excessively challenging. If you need a mansion floorplan for the combat, use the one in the Mad God's Key (Dungeon # 112 IIRC), removing the features that make it a run-down and abandoned gang-haunt instead of the well-maintained mansion of a respectable citizen.
This solution avoids the need to have Eligos resurrected, but preserves the incentives for the party to travel to Diamond Lake (assuming they don't already know Allustan used to be Manzorian's apprentice--but news of Ilthane will almost certainly trump an early trip to Magepoint), and on to Magepoint afterwards. It also reminds the PCs that just because they killed the Ulgurstasta doesn't mean they won--there are still people who want them dead, which means there are still important secrets to which they must discover the answers. And it adds a potentially interesting additional encounter, if the DM wants it. Maybe Okoral knew the PCs were coming to Eligos's house and planned it all so that he could take care of two problems at once. He's ready for the PCs when they arrive, and after he strikes the first time, they have to find him before he catches the next one off guard! (If you choose this option, you can have him hide Pollard's body and use disguise self to get the drop on both Eligos and the PCs, then use invisibility to escape and set up his second ambush.)
Peruhain,
Just wanted to say that this is an excellent suggestion concerning a grievously wounded Eligos escaping at death’s door. It concludes the adventure while still leaving the other plot threads and the sense of larger events well intact. I think I will most likely go ahead and adopt this conclusion when I get around to running my own AOW campaign. Thanks for sharing.
Good gaming,
Mark
While I found the whole resurrection argument pretty pointless in a high-powered campaign setting, the solution entertained on this thread is an excellent one.
Well done chap!
I had the manservant survive because Okoral was trying to
frame him.
The resurrection caused Eligos' head to dissolve.
I had Okoral being a minion to 2 mind flayers who he procured
heads for.
I had the flayers breeding larva large enough to change giants.
When the PCs found them they had to face a cloud giant
using Mind Blasts as his ranged weapon.
If you want to have Illithids spreading through the
Fire and Frost Giants, here's your excuse.
Anyways, I used Okoral as a way for the PCs to do the
greater ritual for their pair of Weapons of Legacy.
I had Eligos just die... and kept Allustan in the game to replace him. Makes for some interesting tension between Allustan and his old master.
Shade325
I must say, I would assume my party will just use Raise Dead on a dead Eligos, not just leave him there or whatever.
Anyone experience that? What did you have ELigos do then?
Could the PCs cast raise dead,
or do you mean they hired someone to cast it?
In the game I DM the assassin was taking heads and
presenting them to Mind Flayers.
A ressurection was required.
I must say, I would assume my party will just use Raise Dead on a dead Eligos, not just leave him there or whatever.
Anyone experience that? What did you have ELigos do then?
Perhaps all the more reason to keep him alive, and out of reach of the PCs, for the time being. That way, they have an incentive to return to Diamond Lake and find Allustan, since Eligos' unfinished letter didn't reveal who their former master was.
And Goth Guru makes a good point that in a world where Eligos' friends are likely to raise him from the dead, the bad guys are going to take steps to make that as difficult as possible.
I must say, I would assume my party will just use Raise Dead on a dead Eligos, not just leave him there or whatever.
Anyone experience that? What did you have ELigos do then?
I saw that problem to begin with, and so in my game (which should be at this point in a session or two), Eligos' heart will be conveniently missing, courtesy of Okoral.
He stayed dead IMC - no problems with it, at all.
Thread Resurrection!!
Could some kind soul point me to when/how Eligos becomes integral to the campaign after he's brought back from the dead? I've already finished Champion's Games, and was reading ahead to Spire of Long Shadows and realized he was brought back. It's been a while since I read the last four or five modules, and I can't remember what significance he holds now. Most likely, I'll keep him dead and use another NPC in his role.
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At least, if your one of my players looking for spoilers -- which you may not be, afterall.
It's truely wierd. My group JUST saw Eligos' blasted home and found him missing and his unfinished note. And in our modified homebrew they're off to "The Spire of Long Shadows."
So, Ruined, are you one of my players in disguise?
-W. E. Ray
So, Ruined, are you one of my players in disguise?
Judging from his previous posts I would guess not, and that the person is actually a GM for AOW :-)
Another another note, Ruined, thanks for reviving this thread as it gave me a chance to see the OP which contains a pretty good idea on how to alter the 'Eligos' situation; a much better ending all in all.
Thread Resurrection!!
Could some kind soul point me to when/how Eligos becomes integral to the campaign after he's brought back from the dead? I've already finished Champion's Games, and was reading ahead to Spire of Long Shadows and realized he was brought back. It's been a while since I read the last four or five modules, and I can't remember what significance he holds now. Most likely, I'll keep him dead and use another NPC in his role.
After his death and resurrection he only plays a minor role behind the scenes.
I was one of the people who was disappointed on how his death and return was handled. To this day I still can't make sense of it. Needless to say that in order to have Eligos death have meaning I KEPT HIM DEAD!!!
So, Ruined, are you one of my players in disguise?Judging from his previous posts I would guess not, and that the person is actually a GM for AOW :-)
Heh, no. I've been running my FR version of Age of Worms for about a year and a half now. It would be cool to play, I'm sure, but I have my own campaign here in NC.
My group is heavily involved with the Church of Lathander, and the topic of resurrection is a heavy one (especially with the Cleric being raised during the Champion Games). So I wanted to see if there was some really good reason for Eligos to reappear. So far, it doesn't look like it will happen in my campaign.
I must say, I would assume my party will just use Raise Dead on a dead Eligos, not just leave him there or whatever.
Anyone experience that? What did you have ELigos do then?
Our cleric raised Eligos. As a newbie DM I freaked a bit but let them do it and simply had Eli suggest that the PCs still seek out Allusten to see if he had any further evidence to add before the PCs speak with the archmage. I also flanged a little claiming he was a bit disoriented being post-death and all!
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In my campaign, I used the this scene (the discovery of dead Eligos) to hint at (outright reveal is more like it) Celeste's extraplanar nature and hidden power; she showed up looking for Eligos as the PCs were trying to decide their next move. They knew they wanted to go to Diamond Lake, but they were going to detour to the temple and have Eligos raised, themselves.
I used Eladrin stats for Celeste and let her raise him, so that the PCs wouldn't waste any more time in Greyhawk and be tempted to fight wights for XP. (They failed to prevent the Urgulstasta's ascension, so Greyhawk was being overrun.)
I also used the scene to tie up some lose plot threads: the PCs had previously left the Faceless One and Grallak Kur alive and unfought, and had left Theldrik's body in his temple for them to find (so the other two had him raised). The three villains set an ambush for the PCs at Eligos's house, with the Faceless One shapeshifted to look like the dead Pollard when the PCs arrived. The other two were invisible. It worked out well, and made for a memorable scene, IMO.
From memory, as written, Eligos has been killed in such a way that he can't be raised - raise dead requires a complete body to work from, and cannot raise anyone killed by a death effect. If my memory is wrong, it's easy enough to change it so that this is the case. For example, in my game, he was assassinated by an assassin (a death effect, I believe), and just for good measure I described how his heart had been cut out.
In our campaign he was slain by a homebrew villian weilding Blackrazor(legacy version). I didn't want any doubt he was not coming back.