Our group finished the Shacked City AP last week, defeating Adimarchus in a long difficult battle. In the end, only one of the PC's died, and one was taken by Embril as a gift to WeeJas.
The group loved the adventure path so much that they are practically begging me to run an epic level sequel. I've got some ideas, but was seeing if any of you other DM's are considering doing something like this or have already done a epic level sequel.
The group is definitely going to want to recover their lost members soul from WeeJas, so I think I will start by having them travel to Archion (sp?) in an attempt to get the soul from WeeJas. WeeJas agrees to let the group have his soul back (they had already recovered his body from Carceri), but they must perform a task for her before a certain date or she will reclaim the soul.
There are some enemies in our campaign that lived and escaped, including Embril and a couple of the Cagewrights, and I am planning on having them reform, but haven't decided on their goal yet, besides the destruction of the PC party, and Cauldron itself. I was also thinking about having the party actually fight and kill WeeJas at some point, as the god in my campaign setting has become very corrupt and her followers are nearly entirely evil. The group hates WeeJas, and I thought that would be a fairly good goal for them.
What do you guys think? Any ideas or suggestions?
Did Wee Jas become corrupt over time in your campaign, or was it an always-so? If she became corrupt, why not have the PCs learn that the corruption was something that was done to the goddess, not something she willingly undertook - ie: the Cagewrights, as a side-effect or as a plan; or some other villains, targeted Wee Jas to be slowly corrupted.
If this is step one in a plot to corrupt more gods and goddesses (and hey, Wee Jas had an easy in to corruption with her portfolio of death as well as magic), then your epic PCs might start to piece things together when one of their gods starts to show the first signs of corruption...
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If this is step one in a plot to corrupt more gods and goddesses (and hey, Wee Jas had an easy in to corruption with her portfolio of death as well as magic), then your epic PCs might start to piece things together when one of their gods starts to show the first signs of corruption...
I really like this idea but it also possible that Wee Jas is the one corrupting the other gods...It would certainly create a reason for the PCs to have to kill her at the climax.
Maybe Weejas would want that Occipitus be back in the heaven, it's a lawful godess and a bit of the lawful plane staying in the abyss is not a nice thing for her....
Or better: this piece must move to acheron....
Or better: this piece (Occiptus) must move to acheron....
I think that's a great idea. Manipulation of Occipitus is a long-term open-ended campaign thread that just screams out for epic-level play. If one of the PCs has the Smoking Eye template, you can make the conflict personal, as well. Others (Embril? Yugoloths? other agents of Wee Jas?) will undoubtedly travel to Occipitus to gain the Smoking Eye and attempt to wrest control of it. I see the seeds here for some very high-powered political maneuvering among agents of the Celestial Heavens, Acheron, Carceri, Baator, and the Abyss, and others, and the PCs could be positioned to play a unique role in how it all turns out.
You could always adapt the last few adventures of the Age of Worms AP to a more epic setting...Lord knows, I imagine Kyuss, Dragotha, and friends could handle some buffs! :)
Or better: this piece (Occiptus) must move to acheron....I think that's a great idea. Manipulation of Occipitus is a long-term open-ended campaign thread that just screams out for epic-level play. If one of the PCs has the Smoking Eye template, you can make the conflict personal, as well. Others (Embril? Yugoloths? other agents of Wee Jas?) will undoubtedly travel to Occipitus to gain the Smoking Eye and attempt to wrest control of it. I see the seeds here for some very high-powered political maneuvering among agents of the Celestial Heavens, Acheron, Carceri, Baator, and the Abyss, and others, and the PCs could be positioned to play a unique role in how it all turns out.
I have spent all day today working on this concept. I know the one PC I have who has the smoking eye template will want to do something with Occipitus, raise it back up to celestia I'm guessing. I havent gotten into the weeds yet, but the following bullets reperesent the basic conclusions I have reached for my campaign.
* Grazt will work to halt anyones designs on occipitus, and if it is one or more of the PC's he will recruit any surviving cagewrights as well as his son to eliminate them.
* To control occipitus a person with the smoking eye template must take one or two feats I have designed. Morphic Planar Control and Greater Morphic Planar Control. These feats allow the PC to manipulate Occipitus.
* Raising Occipitus back to Celestia, or perhaps breaking it off to form its own demi plane (or evil dm pulling it to ravenloft) will require an epic spell akin to the Raise Island spell. I haven't worked out all the details yet. Some ideas I have are:
> It will be a ritual casting requiring at least one demon and one celestial and one with the smoking eye template.
> It will require the destruction or possession of at least one item of great power (artifact).
Just my train of thought this weekend. Opinions and thoughts wanted and welcome.
Or better: this piece (Occiptus) must move to acheron....I think that's a great idea. Manipulation of Occipitus is a long-term open-ended campaign thread that just screams out for epic-level play. If one of the PCs has the Smoking Eye template, you can make the conflict personal, as well. Others (Embril? Yugoloths? other agents of Wee Jas?) will undoubtedly travel to Occipitus to gain the Smoking Eye and attempt to wrest control of it. I see the seeds here for some very high-powered political maneuvering among agents of the Celestial Heavens, Acheron, Carceri, Baator, and the Abyss, and others, and the PCs could be positioned to play a unique role in how it all turns out.I have spent all day today working on this concept. I know the one PC I have who has the smoking eye template will want to do something with Occipitus, raise it back up to celestia I'm guessing. I havent gotten into the weeds yet, but the following bullets reperesent the basic conclusions I have reached for my campaign.
* Grazt will work to halt anyones designs on occipitus, and if it is one or more of the PC's he will recruit any surviving cagewrights as well as his son to eliminate them.
* To control occipitus a person with the smoking eye template must take one or two feats I have designed. Morphic Planar Control and Greater Morphic Planar Control. These feats allow the PC to manipulate Occipitus.
* Raising Occipitus back to Celestia, or perhaps breaking it off to form its own demi plane (or evil dm pulling it to ravenloft) will require an epic spell akin to the Raise Island spell. I haven't worked out all the details yet. Some ideas I have are:
> It will be a ritual casting requiring at least one demon and one celestial and one with the smoking eye template.
> It will require the destruction or possession of at least one item of great power (artifact).Just my train of thought this weekend. Opinions and thoughts wanted and welcome.
Very cool! I really like the ritual spell. The first idea that came to me is that the spell is something that has already been researched. The PCs stumble upon it in a library built in the bones of a dead god while tracking down some of Grazzt's assassins, who had been sent to get the PCs "out of the way." Of course, this discovery means that Grazzt must also undoubtedly know about the spell. Just how he plans to achieve the "celestial participant" requirement of the spell (perhaps enslaving a planetar) makes the PCs lives more complicated, but may also lead to a possible alliance with the archons (assuming the PCs want to raise Occipitus to Celestia). If the PCs wanted to form their own demi-plane, however, it brings in another adversary in their quest.
Meanwhile, what's to keep others from finding out about the spell and trying it out themselves? If the spell was found etched into the bones of the dead god, and those bones are now beyond any mortal power to alter or destroy, then the knowledge is there for the taking by those who know where to look. All it takes is one rat, either a turncoat from the Grazzt camp, or perhaps an independent party that has been spying on the PCs, before the word gets out. Let's say, for example, that the information gets leaked to Geryon (is that the archdevil who was cast out?) Successfully adding Occipitus to Baator could be all he needs to re-assert himself as ruler of his layer.
I don't have the link available, but go to Enworld.com, to their message boards section, into the story hour section. Find a post by DM Lazy Bones. Go to his main website which can be found in his signature file. He has a Shackled City pdf story hour that he took epic, and I mean WAY epic. I can't even begin to describe how cool and epic his storyline is. If you guys find it, post a link. I'm at work and his site is blocked.
--Bladesmith
Great ideas guys. I think I'm going to go with something like this. Some powerful being is corrupting the gods, as suggested by Bram Blackfeather. WeeJas was just the beginning and he plans on continuing through the pantheon, influencing the deities to do his will.
When the story starts, the party will travel to Archeron to recover their friend's soul from WeeJas. WeeJas is being controlled by this powerful force, but gains control back from time to times. While the party members are there, her sanity returns temporarily and she asks the party for help, sending them to find this fiend and stop him. They will of course travel through many planes and meet other Gods along the way, tying up the loose ends with some of their backstories and Embril, who escaped previously, before confronting whatever evil force is behind the corruption of WeeJas.
I don't have the link available, but go to Enworld.com, to their message boards section, into the story hour section. Find a post by DM Lazy Bones. Go to his main website which can be found in his signature file. He has a Shackled City pdf story hour that he took epic, and I mean WAY epic. I can't even begin to describe how cool and epic his storyline is. If you guys find it, post a link. I'm at work and his site is blocked.
--Bladesmith
For those who are interested: [URL]http://lazybones18.tripod.com/[/URL]