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I need the creative minds of these boards to solve for x.
Question: Why would demons or aberrations or the Queen of Chaos want with darkwood from Darkmoon Vale?
Situation:
Over the course of a campaign, valuable "darkwood" from PAIZO's darkmoon vale has been traded for $ by the lumber constortium and shipped to a far-off coastal kingdom for some malevolent purpose. Now has come the time in the campaign when I must answer "why". Can you think of ideas?
Ideally: I'd like for the location of the purchased lumber, and its use to be revealed in the same place where either Miska the Spider or the Queen of Chaos has her minions. I need to link the "use" of the darkwood to either their location, or the location that leads to the Queen's swamp. Can you solve for x, to help the campaign reach a great ending? What great dark purpose would shiploads of darkwood serve?
I don't have a complete answer, but darkwood could have a hidden magical property that makes it essential for ________.
She could just have an army of druids also.
creating an army of darkwood golems.
she wants to make a giant darkwood burning man to insult the elves and summon some chuthlu esque sky monster? i really got nothing,,,,well one more a giant darkwood throne perhaps
They are using it to create replicas of the Rod of Law that are actually cursed artifacts to stymie lawful forces trying to assemble the Rod of Seven Parts to prevent their soon to be unleashed plans.
They've figured out a way to taint darkwood with chaos to cause darkwood arrows to sprout and grow darkwood saplings in creatures injured by them.
Alternatively, they've got chaos tainted warp wood epicspells ready to do so on normal woods, but darkwood is for some reason immune, so they want to have their own equipment unaffected.
A prophecy states that a macguffin of darkwood construction can harm the forces of law.
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The original Shield of Aroden was made of darkwood.
A sliver of the original shield has been retrieved from the Sodden Lands, and taken to the Evil Kingdom where, over the course of decades, it has been corrupted. By placing the corrupted sliver into a new, large apparatus made entirely of heartwood from the darkwood tree, it suffuses the entirety of the apparatus with profane divine essence.
The aboleth realize that divinity is the one protection that humans and surface life have that have kept them safe after all these millennia. And now, with the death of Aroden, and the possible corruption of a sliver of the Shield, they too can now grab that divinity for themselves, and neutralize the gods' efforts to protect humanity.
The apparatus has been designed to house and protect a single aboleth, and allow it to walk on land and fly in the sky. Its divine nature serves one more purpose: it will allow the bearer, if great enough in power, to survive the Test of the Starstone.
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One idea... please tear apart or offer another idea... I'd like help making this soultion awesome.
What if:
The battle for the Rod of Law must take place on this plane and in the character's adventuring area, because of the darkwood.
The Queen of Chaos is sending minions after the player who is holding 3 parts of the Rod of Law.
The shipment destinations of these Darkwood harvests is indeed the place on the prime material plane where a nexus to the Queen of Chaos' swamp can be created large enough to open way for her armies.
The darkwood has enabled her aberrations to assemble a great Darkwood Tower to shield her from any scrying by the high wizard of the character's homeland. (I've already introduced a great crystal ball operated by the High Wizard.)
Within the Darkwood Tower, her forces are also made immune to divine/holy/righteous attacks, and bestowed a profanne bonus to AC.
The final "Adventure" in the campaign for the Rod of Law ends with discovering the Darkwood Tower, defeating the aberrations within, and confronting her most powerful General. Therein lies a portal to the Swamp where she may be confronted directly.
For more than 5 years her forces have used the arm of the lumber consortium to harvest and later, after the adventurer's put a stop to Boss Teedum, then purchase any available Darkwood.
Further, the Darkwood is now impervious to manipulation by Druids as it resonates with profane energy. This powerful profane energy signals a "pull" upon the pieces of the rod of Law to bring them from other planes of existance to some random location on this world. Finally, the darkwood itself is the only substance that could both shield from scrying while also being made to negate the powers of holy/righteous/divine from those "good-doers" who could defeat her.
With her plans in tact, and her Darkwood Tower now assembled, she lures the party to her in an attempt to take the remaining 3 pieces they possess, assemble the rod, restore Miska, and enter the realm. She has chosen this realm as the battlefront for chaos versus law, because the Darkwood serves her malign purposes in such unique and powerful ways.
Thoughts?
Darkwood ship is being constructed. It can sail from Golarian to the River Styx and back.Ooooh.I like this one even better. Only issue is Styx is a river flowing through the Hells, not the Abyss. Any thoughts?
If Demons want to make ship capable of sailing to the Hell then they surely are preparing an invasion. Or a secret mission to the Hell for something they need.
Note that Styx also touches Axis and Maelstrom and starts from Abaddon, so there are multiple possibilities of their true destination.
Maybe they need to kill something which has a very particular material weakness.
The Queen of Chaos is attempting to manipulate the stock market of Absalom by cornering the market on Darkwood, hoping to cause a speculators' bubble which will lead to a Black Tuesday scenario. The resulting stock market crash will weaken Abadar and allow the Queen of Chaos to take the downward-pointing economic growth arrow from metaphor into metaphysical reality, anoint it with the tears of disillusioned investors, and cause civilization to collapse via sympathetic magic as she uses the arrow to kill Abadar.
The Darkwood? That will be used for the celebratory bonfire once civilization collapses of course.
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What if the last piece of the rod is in the hells, and the demons are plotting a voyage to get it for the Queen?
The party will have acquired 4 piecesby the end of their current adventure...
The Queen might already have 2...
The last one is on the second plane of Hell...
So the queen has created a fleet of four ships with the Darkwood. Two were destroyed in various planes on failed missions. Of the two remaining ships, one is in port that the PCs can overtake and use, the other shall be in an unknown place.
Here's a suggested outline:
I. PCs track darkwood to a far off shore city-state run by thugs and crime bosses and surviving arms of the evil lumber consortium.
II. The Queen has a "dark tower" built there from which she plans to open a conduit to her swampy realm and plan an invasion. The PCs can enter the tower, fight minions, and leave with knowledge of what is happening.
III. PCs can over take, through battle, the ship in port, and set a course for hell.
IV. The PCS find their 5th piece on the 2nd plane of hell.
V. The PCs can return to the tower, now crackling with unholy chaotic energy, and activate the portal to the Queens Swamp realm. Therein they will battle to the death for the remaining pieces of the rod.
VI. With all seven parts assembled, they can slay Miska or the Queen or bargain for a "truce".
Hmmmmn. What happens to the rod afterword? Do the wind Dukes arrive to take and hide it? Or should the PCs attempt to destroy it by reassembling it in a chaotic order, thus destroying the tower, the portal, and themselves in the process? Such as sequence 6,4,2,7,3,1,5 ??
Thoughts?
Or should the PCs attempt to destroy ... the tower, the portal, and themselves in the process?
Thoughts?
Any time the PC's AREN'T destroying anything and everything, especially themselves and a GM's plans, they're doing it wrong.
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Okay, I don't really believe that, but I had to say it.
Really, though, as far as a 'chaotic' order of reassembling the staff, it's easy enough to do: roll a 1d8 dice, re-rolling all 8s that come up, and attaching whatever piece the dice indicates next. If a dice indicates the same piece twice in a row, you break it off (if possible, I don't recall much about the rod of seven parts right now) or ignore it (if the first isn't possible). Thus it's literally randomized which part will come next. This can be simulated by having a PC use a knucklebone dice in order to cause the rod to unleash its destruction. Even better might be the magical artifact d20 in the Advanced Player's Guide (I've forgotten what it's called right now), counting 1-8, then 9-16 (subtract 8 to get the number) and doing it that way. Or simply roll the d20, divide by 2, round up, and ignore any results of 17-20.
This could even lead to an interesting final encounter with one PC attempting to assemble the rod chaotically while the others attempt to hold off onrushing hordes attempting to get to the rod/assembling PC before they succeed.
In any event, the destruction of the PCs by the PCs is a very difficult thing to ask of them, so that's one drawback of this method. One thing you might want to offer them is some sort of celestial alliance for such a mighty deed. Law is probably out because of the chaotic reordering of the staff, but neutrality or chaos might be great, especially
Anyway, those are just a few thoughts.