I have an interesting party of adventurers for the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path.
Here they are.
Cleric of Rovagug or Gorum Player has not made up mind yet(CE alignment)
Cleric of Asmodeous (LE)
Cleric of Desna
Cleric of Nethys
Now the players have come up with a scenario where they are under a contract to work together (under geas) until such time the new church is dedicated. This means I will be making the new temple a generic one to all the deities, basically a sort of neutral ground.
Now the question is how to maintain this geas on them, since if the temple is dedicated they are not bound to work together. The easiest method is to either destroy the church again (thinking the big wagon with explosives in it), or steal an item that is needed to do a proper dedication.
The main problem is that what prevents the gods of the clerics to just lift the geas due to circumstances that negate the initial contract.
I would also like a more devious method to perhaps have the PC's as well as the 4 gods tricked into working together.
Now the whole PC's under a geas thing is not my idea, it is the players so they are know full well what they are getting into intially. I just want to have a little surprise for them.
Thanks for suggestions.
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How about having Calistria be the one that cast the geas in the first place, or her agent/avatar. The church they are now building isn't the church for the geas, which they don't find out until after it's done. Drop a few hints or however you need to tell them afterwards.
The church they need to build is [u]OVER THERE[/u] (Read - really really really far away). So now they have to stay together while they travel to the new area to build their 'church'. Of course they can't fly or do anything to speed their travel, Calistria won't let them (see fine print of geas), and of course, it has to be a hardship and something to endure to prove themselves, so they have to walk. (gasp)
Needless to say the trip will not be boring as Calistria is going to screw with them and put obstacles in their way. (Read - monsters, bad guys, magic portals sending them to modern day earth, and what have you...)
Calistria is also running interference with the other gods so they don't know what's going on with their boys. You know, like picking up the phone and disguising her voice so the PC's think they are talking to their boss instead of her.
Man, they are just giving you the easy plot hook. I'd love to run that group. };)
Cleric of Rovagug or Gorum Player has not made up mind yet(CE alignment)
Cleric of Asmodeous (LE)
Cleric of Desna
Cleric of Nethys
I'm somewhat stunned that your players decided to all run clerics at the same time. And then, geas or not, that they've tossed together such far-ranging alignments...i.e., from CG to N to CE to LE. That's quite a spectrum for a regular party of mixed classes, much less actual clerics who have devoted their lives to such deities. In addition, it would seem to me that a priest (and not just a follower) of Rovagug and Asmodeus would have too many conflicts of interest with the plot of RotR.
For instance, Lamashtu's involvement in Burnt Offerings would be something Rovagug and his priest would eventually support...geas or no geas. And, the overall plot involving Karzoug's sin magic based on greed sounds like it would be right up the alley of Asmodeus and his cleric, as well. So, it feels like those deities would apply some divine intervention to lift such a geas from their clerics as soon as the plot of RotR was revealed.
I guess I don't really have that many ideas for you. I'd be hard-pressed to try running such a group. And in fact, I'd heavily urge the players leaning towards the evil priesthoods to switch to something else.
For instance, I could easily see a four amigos approach to having a party comprised of all clerics. But I'd want them to each represent one of the shrines in the new cathedral at Sandpoint...i.e., Desna, Shelyn, Erastil, Abadar, Gozreh, or Sarenrae...all non-evil priesthoods. I see you've got Desna covered already, so if you could convince the others to adopt one of the other priesthoods that already exists in Sandpoint, you'd have them much better positioned from a character motivation standpoint, rather than having to rely on a geas for bringing such disparate religions together.
Lumping together good characters with evil characters is a tough balancing act for any DM...made even moreso when the party is equally balanced between those opposing alignments. So, I'm sorry I don't have any ideas for you with making that particular group work out. To me, RotR needs some real heroes...and not a follower of Asmodeus and Rovagug who are simply compelled to be involved.
But that's just my two-cents,
--Neil
Yeah I was stunned as well. I gave out each one a copy of the Player's Guide to the adventure path and this is what they came up with, geas and all.
One of the players has just emailed me with a little bit of background and some thoughts.
The gods are prophetic and have seen glimpses of the future. They have seen that one runelord is awakening and potentially others. Now some gods have decided to work together to combat it. Those on the evil side do not want to invest to much power into handling it so they send starting out members of the church to handle it, if it works out it works out. There might also be other reasons behind it.
I do not know yet about the relationships between runelords and gods, still reading the adventure. It would be interesting to see if the runelords and the gods are were in conflict in someway.
Basically the players are thinking something like the scared lands background, various churches of different alignments making an effort to handle some sort of threat.
The gods are prophetic and have seen glimpses of the future.
Specifically, you'd be looking at Pharasma to have seen such glimpses of the future. Her portfolio directly mentions prophecy and fate (as well as life and death). So, if someone foresaw the eventual return of the runelords, Pharasma would be a likely candidate.
They have seen that one runelord is awakening and potentially others. Now some gods have decided to work together to combat it. Those on the evil side do not want to invest too much power into handling it so they start sending out members of the church to handle it, if it works out it works out. There might also be other reasons behind it.
I can understand that rationalization. But again, knowing what we know about the underlying plot for RotR, as well as the specific side-interest involving Lamashtu in Burnt Offerings, I think you've already got evil gods supporting the return of Karzoug (either directly or indirectly). Therefore, it seems less likely that Asmodeus or Rovagug would be supporting such a mission alongside the other good-aligned faiths. That's just my opinion, of course.
For instance...
In addition, Lamashtu's agenda and the whole runewell full of wrath-based sin-magic -- as well as the destructive sinspawn and goblin chaos -- is probably something a follower of Rovagug (who has a portfolio revolving around wrath, disaster, and destruction) to favor...not oppose.
So again, including PCs who worship Asmodeus and Rovagug, just doesn't sound like it would resonate well with the themes of RotR. Personally, I think the inclusion of those characters would be a very difficult thing to GM if they intend to stay true to their faith. Now, if you can work with them to become ex-Clerics of those priesthoods and eventually transition over to one of the good- or neutral-aligned faiths, then it all might work out pretty well from a storytellling standpoint.
But it's your game. So it's your call on what to allow or not allow in the campaign. If it were me, I'd definitely steer them to something else...with the explanation that, knowing what I know about the plot for the campaign, they'll enjoy the story more if they play a different character or at least play a cleric of a different faith.
I do not know yet about the relationships between runelords and gods, still reading the adventure. It would be interesting to see if the runelords and the gods are were in conflict in someway.
Open the section on Thassilon. Each of the runelords and their "nations" were based around a specific type of sin magic. But there was also an ancient god or goddess associated with those realms, too. All of them except Desna are virtually extinct now...though I believe there's still a few pockets of stone giants who worship one of the others, too. I suspect that may come to light as we go further into the AP.
As for the rest of the current core gods in Golarion, there hasn't been any specific mention of relationships between them and the runelords. Thassilon essentially collapsed from within anyway. So much of their culture -- and hence, religion -- has faded into time.
Basically the players are thinking something like the scarred lands background, various churches of different alignments making an effort to handle some sort of threat.
Again, I could see this among the good- and neutral-aligned faiths. It's specifically the injection of evil religions like Asmodeus and Rovagug that present a few more challenges, I think. Good luck with your game whatever you choose to do. I'm only offering advice, and I'm not trying to convince you to do something you or your players don't want to do.
--Neil
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In many pantheon's, deities of opposing interest have often been protrayed working together when there's a common enemy or goal.
So, you need to be thinking what would worry a deity enough to cause him/her to work together with someone they dispise? How about Death?
You know from the player's info that something recently (in deity terms) killed the deity Aroden. You don't have to know any of the details really. This gives you leave to have various groups from opposing faiths working together across the land, all trying to find info on "who wanted to kill a God".
So your A-Team of Clerics has been Geas'd to work this issue. You can tie in the Pathfinders (ancient knowledge) and the Runelords (could challenge/kill a Deity).
It will probably turn out that the Pathfinders/Runelords have absolutely nothing to do with the death of Aroden, but this gives you a hook anyway. I'm sure the B-Team of clerics over in Freedonia will figure out that other stuff.
Pete
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They have seen that one runelord is awakening and potentially others. Now some gods have decided to work together to combat it. Those on the evil side do not want to invest too much power into handling it so they start sending out members of the church to handle it, if it works out it works out. There might also be other reasons behind it.I can understand that rationalization. But again, knowing what we know about the underlying plot for RotR, as well as the specific side-interest involving Lamashtu in Burnt Offerings, I think you've already got evil gods supporting the return of Karzoug (either directly or indirectly). Therefore, it seems less likely that Asmodeus or Rovagug would be supporting such a mission alongside the other good-aligned faiths. That's just my opinion, of course.
Altho the PCs start at level 1 where the dieties obviously have higher level clerics in other places. maybe these evil gods sent low level clerics into the geas to make it appear that they were helping, while they gather their power to the assist or take advantage of the runelord. maybe they feel that having a martyr will help them get ignorant people into their temple to convert to their evil ways, so the pc's own god is planning their demise.
I have decided to use the goddess of dreams and prophecy as the hook. This way they are bound to something sort of long term not short term. The goddess has had a vision of an event that could threaten the gods. The goddess knows that events in Sandpoint might have something to do with it, so various gods send groups of their followers out to investigate the area.
Due to the potential threat and the fact that different beliefs are involved the characters have a geas on them to work together.