So I was hoping to send this in as a submission, but considering the end of the magazines, I guess that possibility has been lost.
I was trying to come up with an idea of a very useful adventure to write for Dungeon and I happened upon this: creating an epic adventure (22nd or at the most 25th level) that was set up specifically to be run after the end of any of the 3 APs, as they are currently written. While I have not even gotten close to finishing it (I was just starting to gear back up to writting more of it when the announcement came in April) I think that the basic idea is a good one.
The working title is: The Trypich of Ur
Here is what I have written so far:
The Triptych of Ur
An Epic Adventure for a Group of 4, 22nd level Adventures
Plot:
Three groups of Ur-Priests and their allies seek to destroy three gods, draining their powers into their bodies, and upsetting the divine balance of the planes. They are going to push their rituals in three different locations, forcing the players to attack three places at once. If they attack Atka Isten first, they will be at a disadvantage as the other two have weapons and items that can be used against Atka and the Atropal.
In Depth:
The Ur-Priests of Scuttlecove were attacked by a Vengeful God, perhaps Hextor, who they had planned on destroying, their plans failed. They had to flee, and in so doing ended up on the Negative Energy plane, in the home of an ancient Ur Priest, Atka Isten. This was 7 years ago.
The Ghost of Ssythar-Vassha had discovered a weakness that many divine beings held, to the bodily fluids of an Atropal, a extremely rare undead stillborn child of a God or Goddess. The slithering archmage was unable to discover the location of an Atropal, but knew of one who might know, the Ancient Ur-Priest Atka Isten. This was 3 or 4 years ago.
Atka Isten, hated Pelor deeply and so planned to destroy him, only he was biding his time before acting. He now has enough powerful associates to act.
They found the Atropal deep in the bowels of Pandemonium, bringing it forth with their combined might, and allying with it, promising to allow it to destroy it’s parent, Pelor.
Major Foes:
Atropal – Main final foe (CR 30)
Atka Isten – Main Ur-Priest – Wanting to kill Pelor
Either:
a Half-Celestial/Half-Human –
2nd Ranger/5th Wizard/10th Ur-Priest/7th Mystic Theurge (CR 26)
12th Level Arcane Spellcaster- 23rd Level Divine Spellcaster
Or Possibly
Shadar-Kai (CR:26) Has worked for the Garrote
3rd Rogue/12th Cleric of Shadow God/10th Black Flame Zealot
with 2 Advanced x2 Evolved Undead Nightwalkers (CR 22 each, CR 24 together 33HD each) CR 27 Encounter
The Ur-Priests of Scuttlecove – Associated with the Savage Tides AP – Wanting to kill Olidamara. CR25 Encounter
Kolyarut 2nd Fighter/10th Ur-Priest – Followed a oath breaker to the Far Realm, went mad (CR 24)
or
Varakhut Inevitable – Advanced CR: 24 (Elite Array Stats, +12HD, Huge, 34HD)
with:
12th level Fighters/8th Level Ur-Priest (Human) x2 (CR:20 each, CR 22)
Possibly the Ghost of Ssythar-Vassha – The Ancient Cleric of Merrshaulk, risen as a Greater Mummy, associating with the Ur Priests to bring destruction to the soft fleshed gods for their desecration of his tomb. Wanting to kill Wee Jas, because of her follower that brought destruction to his tomb. CR26 Encounter
Yuan-Ti pureblood 6th Level Fighter/6th level Sorcerer/10th level Eldritch Knight CR:25
with:4 Awakened Gargantuan Constrictor Snakes – HD: 33HD+ 6th Fighters (CR20)
“A Humanoid creature with subtle snakelike features clad in a black robe, and wearing a coronet, in one hand grasping a viper, in the other hand an unblinking eye set into it’s palm”.
Major Locations:
- The Negative Energy Plane – Atka Isten’s Flying Castle, the Trypich of Ur – Trying to merge the Plane with the Fortress of the Sun for 20 rounds in order to kill Pelor.
- On the Plains of Ysgard, hidden in a deep valley, near the Den of Olidammara
- On a large Crystal Shard in Ocanthus Burrowed in the heart of the Shard
Rewards:
The Tryptych of Ur – A powerful Flying Planar Castle
2 Vials of the Cord Blood of the Atropal – Prepare a oil to be used against it
Craft: Alchemy DC 60 Worth 1,800gp each
Powerful Temporal Spell can give them 2 weeks to
complete the oil
Oil of the Gods Blood – effects last for 10 rounds.
If pored on a blade – DC save 30 Fort save or the Blade is eaten
away and turns to dust.Overcome Damage Reducation of the Atropal as well
as adding +10 to all damage done to it. If Drunk – DC save 30 Fort or Die. +10 to spell level for all spells cast against the Atropal
1 Boon from the church of each God(dess), each boon is worth up to 50,000gp
Estimated Length and number of Maps:
1 Map of the Shard of Ocanthus
1 Map of the Valley of Ysgard (Overgrown Temple of an ancient CG god of war)
1 Map of the the Trypich of Ur.
I realize that it is still rather in rough sketch form, but tell me what do you think.
I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about. Are these Atropals and Atka Istens things I should know about from old canon or are they made up by you for this adventure?
Other than that, I totally agree that these three APs deserve an uber epic adventure to cap them all. That's a brilliant idea and I hope someone with more epic knowledge than I have will come along and help you develop your idea.
I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about. Are these Atropals and Atka Istens things I should know about from old canon or are they made up by you for this adventure?
Other than that, I totally agree that these three APs deserve an uber epic adventure to cap them all. That's a brilliant idea and I hope someone with more epic knowledge than I have will come along and help you develop your idea.
I was trying to come up with some enemies that would suit a capstone adventure to any of the three APs well. Looking at the post, it is kinda messy, in how it is written, mostly notes that I have put together.
Basically an Atropal, which is from the Epic Level Handbook, is a still born child of a God, a really nasty, nast, undead monster. Atka Isten is just the name of a powerful Ur-Priest, I had two different versions that I put together, both are found above.
You could try to submit it to Paizo for and epic adventure path in Pathfinder once the submission guidlines are know.
But with their inability to reference the APs from the Dungeon days, there'd be no option to do an epic capstone sequel to them.
Anyhoo, I confess it's my lack of knowledge about the Ur priests and the lot that are really keeping me from getting behind your story idea. But I'd say if you really wanted your epic adventure to be the culmination of all three APs, you'd write one that could be performed by a combined team of all the PCs who participated in all three APs (assuming any gaming club is lucky enough to have completed them all).
That means you should find a challenge that would be of interest to the new Prince of Alhaster, the heroes of Cauldron, and...whatever the STAP characters get...Lords of the Isle of Dread, maybe.
From here on out we may get pretty SPOILER-y about the three paths, I wanted to start with a
SPOILER WARNING for SCAP, AoW, AND STAP right here!!
Now, off the top of my head, I would imagine the Prince of Redhand and his boon companions are probably going to be interested in finding the rest of the Rod o' Seven Parts, so that should be a part of your epic quest. The Heroes of Cauldron will probably have an interest in the development of Occipitus and/or the history of the Spellweavers (who were significant in both SCAP and AoW.) I wish I knew more of how the STAP would end, though, 'cause I can't predict the continuing interests of those PCs. Maybe the mystery of the fate of the Ur priests is a good hook to follow here.
Is there any story you could come up with that would involve the Ur priests, Occipitus and the Rod?
You could try to submit it to Paizo for and epic adventure path in Pathfinder once the submission guidlines are know.But with their inability to reference the APs from the Dungeon days, there'd be no option to do an epic capstone sequel to them.
Anyhoo, I confess it's my lack of knowledge about the Ur priests and the lot that are really keeping me from getting behind your story idea. But I'd say if you really wanted your epic adventure to be the culmination of all three APs, you'd write one that could be performed by a combined team of all the PCs who participated in all three APs (assuming any gaming club is lucky enough to have completed them all).
That means you should find a challenge that would be of interest to the new Prince of Alhaster, the heroes of Cauldron, and...whatever the STAP characters get...Lords of the Isle of Dread, maybe.
From here on out we may get pretty SPOILER-y about the three paths, I wanted to start with a
SPOILER WARNING for SCAP, AoW, AND STAP right here!!
Now, off the top of my head, I would imagine the Prince of Redhand and his boon companions are probably going to be interested in finding the rest of the Rod o' Seven Parts, so that should be a part of your epic quest. The Heroes of Cauldron will probably have an interest in the development of Occipitus and/or the history of the Spellweavers (who were significant in both SCAP and AoW.) I wish I knew more of how the STAP would end, though, 'cause I can't predict the continuing interests of those PCs. Maybe the mystery of the fate of the Ur priests is a good hook to follow here.
Is there any story you could come up with that would involve the Ur priests, Occipitus and the Rod?
Spoliers Dead Ahead for all 3 APs
Yah I thought about the Rod of Seven parts. I strayed away from it for a few main reasons:
A. Way to big. There are 7 parts, and at most the characters at the end of AoW have only 1 part. Any adventure that would do them justice would have to be an adventure path of it's own, not just a single epic adventure.
B. they only apply to players who come out of Aow. The whole genesis of this idea was to create a single epic adventure with ties to all three APs, but which could be run either on it's own, or as a follow up to any single AP, not all three, thus I was trying to use small, side references and not key elements, partially because one cannot be sure of how these key elements have played out, ie. do the players have 2 parts of the Rod or just one at the end of AoW? ect..
Thus I picked the Ur-Priests from Scuttlecove, to tie into STAP.
The Ghost of Ssythar-Vassha from Attack on the Shatterhorn, to tie into SCAP
Atka Isten (a powerful Ur-Priest) and former member of the Ebon Triad, thus tying into both SCAP and Aow (his name could be on the ledger)
Thus the idea was to make it feel like a definitive turn from the previous APs, not a continuation of their storylines, instead picking up threads from the previous storyline, side threads, paths not related to the main goals, and following them out.
I went for the Trypich of Ur, that is a flying planar castle, because I was trying to think of a cool artifact to give to a group of epic players as treasure from this adventure. There are so many artifacts in other epic adventures, that I wanted to stay away from just making another powerful sword or even other funky item. Instead I thought, what would every epic group love to have and also have a great need for, but will not overly power up a single player, or even the whole group to a large extent. I mean a flying plane shifting castle is cool, bad*** in fact, but really it does not noticeable increase the overall power of a group of 4-6 22nd-25th level characters. It is just really cool dressing. Thus I thought it would be a cool goal, for those more orientate towards treasure and what not.
I'll buy into all of your reasonings. The only thing I can add is to point out the involvement of the Spellweavers in the first two APs. That could be a thread worth picking up as well.
For my personal taste, as much as I enjoy reading your ideas about an epic succession to the Adventure Paths and how you take up and expand upon very nice existing adventures, there is too much name-dropping involved. Make fewer enemies your main enemies and reduce the number of gods; your adventure will provide much more of an epic feel in that way (a god is still a god!), is easier to control, and makes the PCs remain important. You can make the adventure much more focused by using Pelor only, which would provide you with enough material for a lot to be going on, and the enemies would really come together against the adventurers in this fashion.
Btw your ur-priest still only has effective divine caster level 17th (I recommend Practiced Spellcaster) though he casts all the spells of a 10th-level ur-priest.