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Ok I want good constructive criticism about my campaign plot, as well as helpful suggestions.
I saw the orcus miniature coming out recently and thought that if I was getting the miniature I better have a good adventure/campaign to involve him in. So I started digging around old sourcebooks and such for ideas and heres what I got a campaign with orcus as the main villain. And I hope to portray him as evil, intelligent, and the super baddy he is.
In the beginning the universe was created, life sprang out of nothingness worlds were created by those gods of creation, but to all ying there is a yang, and from abundant life abundant death must also be present. Thus into the multiverse entered atropus, the karmic afterbirth of the creation of the multiverse. A cold malevolant force super intelligent, and has one purpose to destroy, hungering after life force that always must be devoured and extinguished. Leaving in its wake a cold dark place full of nothing but undead abominations. But as the millenia passed and periods between feedings became longer atropus became mad with hunger, so all consuming it went mindless over the ages, just consumed with hunger. And still atropus floats there looking like a cratered moon with a blacklight glow, but should the apearance of a indigo star on the horizon every grace your skies know that your world is at an end.
Orcus prince of undeath has long been denied his rightful title as prince of demons, has long been denied his place as god of death. But no more, a servant came to him recently with a book. A book of profane rituals harvested from a dead world, and in particular the knowledge of how to summon the being atropus. Soon he will summon atropus, soon he will bathe in the enrgy from the indigo moon, soon he will gorge himself on the souls of millions as a world dies and he ascends to his rightful place........
A lot of stuff about Orcus...
So I presume that the culmination of the campaign will have the party attempting to derail Orcus' ascension to godhood? Pretty epic stuff. I suppose my questions as a fellow DM are: How does this affect both the players little microcosm and the world at large? Is there any person/god/organization that holds some knowledge of Atropus and has at least some contingency plan should he/it ever appear, or is this something that the world at large is ignorant of until Orcus begins his machinations?
I know you were looking for critique, but I'm trying to get a better idea of what you're planning to do with your campaign. Orcus is an iconic bad guy and I don't think you can really go wrong building an epic (as in the range and scope, not 20+ levels...) campaign centered on him.
Have you been reading Elder Evils?
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A lot of stuff about Orcus...So I presume that the culmination of the campaign will have the party attempting to derail Orcus' ascension to godhood? Pretty epic stuff. I suppose my questions as a fellow DM are: How does this affect both the players little microcosm and the world at large? Is there any person/god/organization that holds some knowledge of Atropus and has at least some contingency plan should he/it ever appear, or is this something that the world at large is ignorant of until Orcus begins his machinations?
I know you were looking for critique, but I'm trying to get a better idea of what you're planning to do with your campaign. Orcus is an iconic bad guy and I don't think you can really go wrong building an epic (as in the range and scope, not 20+ levels...) campaign centered on him.
Very obscure references to atropus do appear, an direct info on him would likely have to be obtained with a "commune" with a greater deity. As for stopping atropus, your talking a super powerful entity powerful enough to destroy worlds, the antithesis of creation, all you probably could hope to do is deflect it or misdirect it. Thats the part I'm working out is how to "deal" with atropus.
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Have you been reading Elder Evils?
That was one sourcebook yes, I liked part of they wrote about atropus from there, including the dead rising attribute in it. However the minions they wrote up for him were lackluster for me so I'm ditching them, as was the "aspect of atropus" so I ditched that. I figured I could make it less about atropus and more about the conniving evil of Orcus. I'm using atropus as a weapon really.
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A lot of stuff about Orcus...So I presume that the culmination of the campaign will have the party attempting to derail Orcus' ascension to godhood? Pretty epic stuff. I suppose my questions as a fellow DM are: How does this affect both the players little microcosm and the world at large? Is there any person/god/organization that holds some knowledge of Atropus and has at least some contingency plan should he/it ever appear, or is this something that the world at large is ignorant of until Orcus begins his machinations?
I know you were looking for critique, but I'm trying to get a better idea of what you're planning to do with your campaign. Orcus is an iconic bad guy and I don't think you can really go wrong building an epic (as in the range and scope, not 20+ levels...) campaign centered on him.
Well Orcus begins the summoning basically at the beginning of the campaign, while the pcs are ignorant of the effects, until 10% of people who die return to life as an equal HD undead. As the campaign pogresses this increases to25%, then 50%, then 100%, then the dead start to rise and a purple star appears on the horizon. That kind of thing. I want this sinister forboding through the entire campaign. This feeling that something truly awful is about to happen.
Ah, ok. So the PCs will be moved by events to start working on finding a solution. I asked about people in the know about Atropus because I wasn't sure if they PCs would have to immediately have reason to start on that path, or if there would be some folks around to get their attention regarding the potential problem. I suppose a whole bunch of folk crawling out of their graves is enough of an attention-getter.
Is this going to be a Pathfinder campaign? I know I wouldn't be playing a rogue otherwise. Being able to sneak attack all those undead that will be running around would be nice.
I think with an undead-heavy campaign such as this, it might behoove you to introduce the undead problem in the campaign background before your players design their characters. That way they can work up PCs that will have definite strengths against undead right off the bat, rather than be caught off guard. It certainly wouldn't do to have a player roll up an enchanter only to find out he'll be spending more than half his time fighting creatures that aren't affected by his best spells.
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I will make sure that a particular PC won't be at a particular disadvantage. And as for the system I'm not quite sure I'm playing both 4th ed and pathfinder as well. I hesitate to use the pathfinder campaign setting only because I don't like to break someones world even if it is a home campaign. But we'll see I'm gathering ideas right now but like I said if I'm owning an orcus mini then I'm using that orcus mini :P
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Very intersting. As an undead horror, I heartily approve. Anything I can do to help Orcus win, just let me know.
Edit: And, of course, that gave me an idea: What if some high-level undead - like a lich or vampire, decides they don't want Orcus to win and try to help the PCs. Could be interesting to see how the party reacts.
Should get some inspiration from Star Wars The Force Unleashed where you can read up on Vader and Palpatine conspiring between each other while still trying to keep the Master-Apprentice relationship of the Sith going. Would work well between two self-serving undead lords vying for power while glad-handling the other. The PCs would eventually have to ally with the lesser of two evils by overtoppling the greater one and address the lesser one at a later date ... unless the lesser then becomes the greater and has an apprentice of his own under his wings ... and the cycle repeats itself.
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Should get some inspiration from Star Wars The Force Unleashed where you can read up on Vader and Palpatine conspiring between each other while still trying to keep the Master-Apprentice relationship of the Sith going. Would work well between two self-serving undead lords vying for power while glad-handling the other. The PCs would eventually have to ally with the lesser of two evils by overtoppling the greater one and address the lesser one at a later date ... unless the lesser then becomes the greater and has an apprentice of his own under his wings ... and the cycle repeats itself.
Or to use the Force Unleashed analogy for a minute longer, the lesser power could be working with the greater power to bring down the PCs even as he works with the PCs to bring down the greater power. That way who ever succeeds, the apprentice wins.
DUDE I so want to play in your campagin.
OK this can be an awesome deal for any cleric/druid player. ALL the gods even the evil ones will be out to stop this guy.
Useing Forgotten Realms as the example. Do you think the evil gods of undeath want to be servants of someone else or be destroyed by a greater power so velsharoon and kiransalee would be glad to work with the dragon god of undeath and even the good god of rebirth and renewal Lathander. There would be NO trust but for the preservation of all they and their followers would cooperate.
Can you imagine the moral problems a cleric or pally would have being saved by a wight or a half vampire?
I suggest heavy reading of Libris Mortis as well as Elder Evils if you have them.
I was ran through a simliar campagin where all the gods of undeath via'd for power and it was alot of fun but be careful because TPK are more likely at higher levels because energy drain isn't funny.
Any chance your planning on running the campaign anywhere in the staete of VA, I'll drive 5hrs to get to a game like this :)
Or to use the Force Unleashed analogy for a minute longer, the lesser power could be working with the greater power to bring down the PCs even as he works with the PCs to bring down the greater power. That way who ever succeeds, the apprentice wins.
Still have yet to play the Wii game, but I actually read the graphic novel last night ... picked up the paperback novel as well to fill in the gaps. Thus the reason why it was fresh in my head.
/threadjack
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So I had an awesome adventure idea, when it comes time to gather information on atropus, they end up being sent to one of the dead worlds ravaged and destroyed by it. It's a world of thin air a dark red sun that is only barely visible on the horizon (everything is either dark or low-light). They visit the the palace of the last paladin king who faced of and tried to stop atropus but failed, he is now an ex-paladin deathknight, who is half mad at his failure because he saw his god die and his world extinguished, he is also completely disgusted with his own abominable existence. What do you think good?
Sounds like a good NPC to help the PCs but still feel a desire to serve his master.
Starkiller...
I'll simply say it's brilliant and has a lot of potential, and like Steven I wish I was close enough to play.
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DUDE I so want to play in your campagin.
OK this can be an awesome deal for any cleric/druid player. ALL the gods even the evil ones will be out to stop this guy.
Useing Forgotten Realms as the example. Do you think the evil gods of undeath want to be servants of someone else or be destroyed by a greater power so velsharoon and kiransalee would be glad to work with the dragon god of undeath and even the good god of rebirth and renewal Lathander. There would be NO trust but for the preservation of all they and their followers would cooperate.
Can you imagine the moral problems a cleric or pally would have being saved by a wight or a half vampire?
I suggest heavy reading of Libris Mortis as well as Elder Evils if you have them.I was ran through a simliar campagin where all the gods of undeath via'd for power and it was alot of fun but be careful because TPK are more likely at higher levels because energy drain isn't funny.
Any chance your planning on running the campaign anywhere in the staete of VA, I'll drive 5hrs to get to a game like this :)
Sorry man I'm in Newfoundland Canada, way out in the north atlantic.
good ideas
I like the way you are going with this! I would point you to the old Planescape 2E module by Monte Cook detailing the resurrection of Orcus called Dead Gods, for some inspiration and yoinkable bits.
SO do not make just one plot for him.
This pretty much. Backup plots. If the Atropus thing gets foiled/doesn't work as planned what's next? If that fails, what after? Three (at max) is probably enough for a single campaign, even that might be much.
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SO do not make just one plot for him.This pretty much. Backup plots. If the Atropus thing gets foiled/doesn't work as planned what's next? If that fails, what after? Three (at max) is probably enough for a single campaign, even that might be much.
3 is a good number. They could even be at cross odds with each other. Or even involve the PCS securing some device for him to be able accomplish some goal.
Say to close the doorway to a ...
You knwo never mind it was a dumb Idea....Just rewatch the dark night and take notes from the joker.
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SO do not make just one plot for him.This pretty much. Backup plots. If the Atropus thing gets foiled/doesn't work as planned what's next? If that fails, what after? Three (at max) is probably enough for a single campaign, even that might be much.3 is a good number. They could even be at cross odds with each other. Or even involve the PCS securing some device for him to be able accomplish some goal.
Say to close the doorway to a ...
You knwo never mind it was a dumb Idea....Just rewatch the dark night and take notes from the joker.
The only reason I hesitate with the multiple plots is because I want this building sense of foreboding. Like I said above as atropus gets closer the dead start to return to life, like in the beginning of the campaign everytime you kill something there's a 10% chance it returns to life immediately as an equal HD undead, then around like 8th level it's a 25% chance, then at 15th it's a 50% chance, 18th 100% chance, 20- 21 the dead start rising from the grave a purple star appears on the horizon.......
That way the campaign propels itself, there's nowhere for the PC's to run to derail the plot kinda thing (I railroad without them knowing it it's awful).|
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Ok I want good constructive criticism about my campaign plot, as well as helpful suggestions.
I saw the orcus miniature coming out recently and thought that if I was getting the miniature I better have a good adventure/campaign to involve him in. So I started digging around old sourcebooks and such for ideas and heres what I got a campaign with orcus as the main villain. And I hope to portray him as evil, intelligent, and the super baddy he is.
In the beginning the universe was created, life sprang out of nothingness worlds were created by those gods of creation, but to all ying there is a yang, and from abundant life abundant death must also be present. Thus into the multiverse entered atropus, the karmic afterbirth of the creation of the multiverse. A cold malevolant force super intelligent, and has one purpose to destroy, hungering after life force that always must be devoured and extinguished. Leaving in its wake a cold dark place full of nothing but undead abominations. But as the millenia passed and periods between feedings became longer atropus became mad with hunger, so all consuming it went mindless over the ages, just consumed with hunger. And still atropus floats there looking like a cratered moon with a blacklight glow, but should the apearance of a indigo star on the horizon every grace your skies know that your world is at an end.
Orcus prince of undeath has long been denied his rightful title as prince of demons, has long been denied his place as god of death. But no more, a servant came to him recently with a book. A book of profane rituals harvested from a dead world, and in particular the knowledge of how to summon the being atropus. Soon he will summon atropus, soon he will bathe in the enrgy from the indigo moon, soon he will gorge himself on the souls of millions as a world dies and he ascends to his rightful place........
Historically Orcus is lord of the Underworld...this whole undeath thingy is more a case of "oops! didnt cart that fellow off to the underworld...my bad!"
You might have him as a I dont like the living because they mistreat the dead and kill the living. Thats why I always play the guy with the three headed dog as guardian of the underworld...keeping out the living trash.
He isnt Prince of Demons...hes that loner/rebel who really would have issue with Demons.
The only reason I hesitate with the multiple plots is because I want this building sense of foreboding. Like I said above as atropus gets closer the dead start to return to life, like in the beginning of the campaign everytime you kill something there's a 10% chance it returns to life immediately as an equal HD undead, then around like 8th level it's a 25% chance, then at 15th it's a 50% chance, 18th 100% chance, 20- 21 the dead start rising from the grave a purple star appears on the horizon.......SO do not make just one plot for him.This pretty much. Backup plots. If the Atropus thing gets foiled/doesn't work as planned what's next? If that fails, what after? Three (at max) is probably enough for a single campaign, even that might be much.3 is a good number. They could even be at cross odds with each other. Or even involve the PCS securing some device for him to be able accomplish some goal.
Say to close the doorway to a ...
You knwo never mind it was a dumb Idea....Just rewatch the dark night and take notes from the joker.
If the players are lead to believe that Orcus himself is RESPONSIBLE for Atropus setting his obsidian eyes on their world, that itself would be plenty forboding.
"HE CAN DO THAT???"
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[spoiler=PLAYERS STAY OUT!]AGENDA: ORCUS is looking to trap all those who have ever entered the underworld and plundered souls, ripped of the dead, or just generally pissed Orcus off. He has his Clerics begin constructing a Maze or Labyrinth between the Underworld and the Surface as BUFFER zone. This Maze will function as a one way in/no way out obliette. Clerics of Orcus hire on as Graveyard tenders and begin crafting a Maze in a Graveyard designed to trap grave robbers.[/spoilers]
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I think i may add a few published adventures in with my own. Depending if I can alter the adventure to my liking.Such as?
Well, I was looking to adapt "Keep on the shadowfell". To start, I'm currently writing a couple of my own, but lately I have been so scatterbrained because of running 3 games and working I've only been able to do bits and pieces here and there on writing them.
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Well, I was looking to adapt "Keep on the shadowfell". To start, I'm currently writing a couple of my own, but lately I have been so scatterbrained because of running 3 games and working I've only been able to do bits and pieces here and there on writing them.I think i may add a few published adventures in with my own. Depending if I can alter the adventure to my liking.Such as?
One thing that has work well for me in the past is to take a look at a high level module and giving hints to it being in the earlier adventure.
Knowing I would be using tomb of the Mud Sorcerer at some point allowed me to interject some of the clues that would allow the characters at higher level to want to go into the tomb.
Some thoughts:
In order for Orcus to “gorge himself on the souls of millions” he must have his worshippers build massive structures across the face of the planet. These structures act as spiritual conduits; siphoning the souls away from the Indigo Star and into an artifact Orcus has hidden within his realm.
- Low-level: the party discovers one of these structures being built and must combat the cultist and destroy the building.
- Mid-level: the party discovers information about a powerful artifact that might be causing and/or might help stop the hoards of undead now plaguing the land. The artifact was last known to reside in a great Temple of a God of good in some remote, nearly unreachable, location. The party ventures to the temple to secure the artifact only to find it sacked, the artifact gone, the guardians dead and the minions on Orcus laying in wait.
- High-level: Using info secured at the temple the part attempts to enter Orcus’s realm and destroy the artifact.
Not being a fool Orcus takes precautions to make sure that his plans are not interfered with. Weaving an intricate web of lies and deceptions he frames the current god of Death for the summoning of Atropus. Orcus’s Minions carry out his orders disguised as clerics of the God, he implants his agents into the God’s court, and he spreads false accusations among the more gullible of the gods of good. As the party gains levels try and feed the belief that it is the God of Death that is trying to bring about the apocalypses only giving little hints here and there that someone else might be behind it. Once the Party does discover the truth make it near impossible for them to convince anyone else, even the gods, so that they must face Orcus alone. Even more diabolical have the only deity to believe them be the god of death and he offers them a deal, he will help them defeat Orcus if they help him defend his realm from the forces of good (or negotiate a truce for a more diplomacy heavy adventure).
The final part of the ritual that will grant Orcus divinity is he must consume the flesh of Atropus. Not wanting to put himself in too much risk, he conceals his true identity and infiltrates the party disguise as a tortured Death Knight from another world, seeking redemption by destroying Atropus. In this rues he provided the party with the exact info the need to kill or at least defeat Atropus. It is not until the final climatic battle, just as the party is about to defeat Atropus, that Orcus shows himself and completes the ritual. As the power surges through Orcus the party has only moments to destroy him before he achieves divinity and becomes unstoppable.
Hope this helps, this sounds like an amazing campaign.