I need to wrap up a quest, and i want to have an epic fetch quest of at least 10 epic items to craft a spell to destroy an ancient evil (well over character level).
1. A Sea Serpent Heart (From the bestiary they are immune to divination and dont leave a trail in water so they are near impossible to track)
2. An Elder Minotaur Horn (Big labyrinth)
3) The tears of a god(dess) of joy.
4) A humble ant.
5) A staff from the elder ash treant.
A signed contract from Asmodeus giving his blessing for the spell.
The crown of an immortal king.
The tears of the queen of the fey.
A clipping from the topmost branch of the world tree.
A life-sized, solid gold statue of the ancient evil in question.
The remains of the first liches phylactery.
The cup from which Cayden Cailean drank his last beer as a mortal.
A mortal decendant of Aroden.
The cup from which Cayden Cailean drank his last beer as a mortal.
I really like that one
I need to wrap up a quest, and i want to have an epic fetch quest of at least 10 epic items to craft a spell to destroy an ancient evil (well over character level).
1. A Sea Serpent Heart (From the bestiary they are immune to divination and dont leave a trail in water so they are near impossible to track)
2. An Elder Minotaur Horn (Big labyrinth)
A demon's tear
A ruler's last breath
An orb containing a soul from each of the following
- agathion
- angel
- archon
- azata
- daemon
- demon
- devil
- protean
It sounds like you need a weapon
It could be the 10 parts of the first sword ever made.
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An iPhone.
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Macguffins are used to start a drama. They don't mean much but gets the story going. Its not necessary to actually develop the macguffin. The classic example is the man on a train who is holding a special box. "What do you have in the box," another man asks. "It's a macguffin," the box holder says. "What's a macguffin," the inquiring man asks. The man holding the ornate box reflects for a moment with a puzzled look on his face and says,"I don't really know, it isn't anything really. So where are you headed?
This gets the dialogue started, and quickly the macguffin is abandoned as part of the story line. But the story has begun, the two men met, and are talking...
As for your epic ending - what you are really wanting is a summation of your campaign in a heroic and exciting climax and ending!
That said, here's my advice:
1) Take a look at all the events of your campaign to-date. Determine if anything in the past suggests what the type of spell will be, and how the evil is to be vanquished.
2) Retrofit your story climax overtop the previous events by thematically tieing it together.
Example: If during your previous quests the party picked up something strange and unexplained - make that one of the reagents/ingredients for a scroll that must be created to cast the epic spell.
Example: Rather than having the party take on new quests to gather the reagents/ingredients needed for the epic scroll to vanquish great evil, instead, make these readily available - - - BUT, the party must leverage NPCS and relationships built along the campaign to ask allies for the ingredients. Because of the past partnerships, the allies will be forthcoming to help. Epic endings often see the reapparance of old NPC allies who come to aid the party. This is a great exciting fantasy trope i.e. an old wizard who was briefly met in the past can craft the scroll, or a lowly Baron has the ironshadow blossom reagent in his vault.
3) Establish an epic place for the casting such as a defiled altar atop an ancient holy site, a specific time of day (based on very big astrological occurances, and determine all the ingredients needed. This is what I think your thread is asking for... here are just some top-of-mind ideas:
a) 50,000pp worth of diamond dust - fleece your characters to sell all they have, convert into diamonds and have them crushed
b) A firewraught opal - something an NPC has
c) The blood of a ______. Determine what kind of effect the spell will have and relate it to a monster. If the spell will turn evil to stone, make it cocatrice blood for example.
d) A lock of hair from a Nymph
e) The horn of a hellbred unicorn
f) 16 ounces of mica
g) 3 ironwrought blooms (flower petals of somekind)
h) A magic user of Level 20 willing to craft and cast the scroll - but dramatically one who is somewhat reticent to do so, and who does not fancy visiting the old sacred site for some silly racial reason.
i) A sacred relic from a church of the GM's choosing: fingerbone of a saint, or a femur from a holy man.
4) Have the players roleplay the learning of the information through research or council by another, then have them roleplay the requesting of the items from each of the donors (former NPCs or those with access to such things). Have them pay somehow to contribute, as in with their wealth for the diamond dust. Make it as expensive as it needs to be so the players become terribly vested in the idea that they have only 1 shot to make it work!
5) Then, at the time, place, with the proper caster, and completed scroll... introduce "Swiper". Reference here is to Dora the Explorer. Swiper comes at the last minute to snatch the scroll, or attempts to bungle up the casting. This makes for high tension and epic finale. Of course it will be up to the players to thwart "Swiper". Depending on your game play level he can be a simple Lich who knows how to use the scroll in reverse - to duplicate evils numbers and create a horde of villains, thus has returned here at this specific time, as divined from prophesy. Or it can be a simple, non-combattant who attempts to thwart the spell from being cast - these are always really fun, because the players don't wish to hurt "Swiper" but rather help him to see the value in what they are doing. This makes for great roleplay too. Even a large random bird that plucks the scroll away innocently is a nice twist, or other such surprise!
Now, with everything in place, your campaign has come to a reasonable, contextual ending. If the spell is successful, great evil is thwarted. Does it come at a cost? Is there lingering question about something not done? Is there adventure still on the horizon? Or is the truly the end of the campaign - if so, make this dramatic and big. Make "Swiper" really be some special task force of evil that provides a deadly challenge to the players! At the last moment, during the 10 minutes of the epic spells casting, the players must prevent the magic user from being disturbed - and the great battle should be deadly, Party CR+3 or +4.
Good luck.
I've definately painted myself into interesting corners as a GM. The key to making it seem very smoothe, as though planned years in advance, is to rely on what has transpired before, and to connect dots that previously seemed disperate and unconnected. This aids in the sense that the conclusion is mighty, epic, and well crafted.
Pax
Macguffins are used to start a drama. They don't mean much but gets the story going. Its not necessary to actually develop the macguffin. The classic example is the man on a train who is holding a special box. "What do you have in the box," another man asks. "It's a macguffin," the box holder says. "What's a macguffin," the inquiring man asks. The man holding the ornate box reflects for a moment with a puzzled look on his face and says,"I don't really know, it isn't anything really. So where are you headed?
This gets the dialogue started, and quickly the macguffin is abandoned as part of the story line. But the story has begun, the two men met, and are talking...
As for your epic ending - what you are really wanting is a summation of your campaign in a heroic and exciting climax and ending!
That said, here's my advice:
1) Take a look at all the events of your campaign to-date. Determine if anything in the past suggests what the type of spell will be, and how the evil is to be vanquished.
2) Retrofit your story climax overtop the previous events by thematically tieing it together.Example: If during your previous quests the party picked up something strange and unexplained - make that one of the reagents/ingredients for a scroll that must be created to cast the epic spell.
Example: Rather than having the party take on new quests to gather the reagents/ingredients needed for the epic scroll to vanquish great evil, instead, make these readily available - - - BUT, the party must leverage NPCS and relationships built along the campaign to ask allies for the ingredients. Because of the past partnerships, the allies will be forthcoming to help. Epic endings often see the reapparance of old NPC allies who come to aid the party. This is a great exciting fantasy trope i.e. an old wizard who was briefly met in the past can craft the scroll, or a lowly Baron has the ironshadow blossom reagent in his vault.
3) Establish an epic place for the casting such as a defiled altar atop an ancient holy site, a...
Hehe, i would do all this BUT i am a DM in a store game who taught this gem to 7-12 yr olds
they're kinda new to the game and are having a hard time with the non-combat aspectsthats why this campaign is ending, to start from scratch and get them into the roleplaying more
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Well, if you want to end that campaign anyway, just let it end with a big bang.
A last stand, king of the hill style, like in the flashback scene of Alien vs Predator, where the Preds try to defend the top of the pyramid against the mass of aliens. (If you don't know what I'm talking about: two short views of that are in this trailer, from 1:30 to the end.)
You could have the PCs trying to defend the caster who performs the ritual for a set amount of time (/rounds), before he manages to banish the ancient evil.
If you want to let your PCs live, you could have the explosion in the end be a positive energy effect so that it only blasts away the undead minion army and the BBEG.
Well, if you want to end that campaign anyway, just let it end with a big bang.
A last stand, king of the hill style, like in the flashback scene of Alien vs Predator, where the Preds try to defend the top of the pyramid against the mass of aliens. (If you don't know what I'm talking about: two short views of that are in this trailer, from 1:30 to the end.)
You could have the PCs trying to defend the caster who performs the ritual for a set amount of time (/rounds), before he manages to banish the ancient evil.
If you want to let your PCs live, you could have the explosion in the end be a positive energy effect so that it only blasts away the undead minion army and the BBEG.
PERFECT CAPSTONE
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOMEbut i have about another 10ish sessions to build to this
i was thinking a glorified shopping list to get to this point
If undead are going to be prevalent, how about needing the fangs from a vampire lord or a mummy's crown?
Here are some non-standard ingredients:
- Jelly of a Living Queen (giant ant)
- 20 feet of Drider Silk
- Talon of Owlbear
- Venom of Emperor Scorpion
and
- Moonflower Petal
A signed contract from Asmodeus giving his blessing for the spell.
Love this one.
My only comment is to note that it seems like these things rarely come in even numbers. If these are special items, it seems more like it should be three, or five, or seven, or even nine. Frankly, even 9 or 10 sounds too numerous to me for all the items to be remotely special. I'd personally limit it to either three or five. Both have significance as important numbers, I think. (Three--smallest number of sides to a shape--triangle, and numerous historical, religious and literary references to the number three; Five--number of sides to a pentacle/pentagram, etc.)
Just my two coppers.
My only comment is to note that it seems like these things rarely come in even numbers. If these are special items, it seems more like it should be three, or five, or seven, or even nine. Frankly, even 9 or 10 sounds too numerous to me for all the items to be remotely special. I'd personally limit it to either three or five. Both have significance as important numbers, I think. (Three--smallest number of sides to a shape--triangle, and numerous historical, religious and literary references to the number three; Five--number of sides to a pentacle/pentagram, etc.)
Just my two coppers.
I'd agree with this. Perhaps combining a quest for five items with Cyberwolf's battle royale idea would work for you.
I'd agree with this. Perhaps combining a quest for five items with Cyberwolf's battle royale idea would work for you.My only comment is to note that it seems like these things rarely come in even numbers. If these are special items, it seems more like it should be three, or five, or seven, or even nine. Frankly, even 9 or 10 sounds too numerous to me for all the items to be remotely special. I'd personally limit it to either three or five. Both have significance as important numbers, I think. (Three--smallest number of sides to a shape--triangle, and numerous historical, religious and literary references to the number three; Five--number of sides to a pentacle/pentagram, etc.)
Just my two coppers.
Yeah
The spell is called Ragnarok WaveThe info they have is that it will destroy every immortal on the plane. But it will actually end the world and restart it to FULLY eliminate the evil it was used to destroy
i'm settling on 5
1- Sea serpent heart
2- Litch's Philactry
3- A Scale from a Red Dragon, freely given
4- (Not Sure)
5- The Left Eye of Odin
Then a large battle where you need to protect the wizard for the full 2 minute casting time
Leave one up to the players. Give them some conditions like:
Impossible to find
Only one in existence
So dangerous one of them might die
Curses the possessor
Will cost one person "everything"
Tell them that whatever they pick has to fulfill 2 or 3 of those qualities.
Two benefits, first it's a little less work for you, second, it gets them to flex their roleplaying muscles. Any answer they give is correct, they just have to justify it. You can then take their idea, add a condition or twist it a little.
Leave one up to the players. Give them some conditions like:
Impossible to find
Only one in existence
So dangerous one of them might die
Curses the possessor
Will cost one person "everything"Tell them that whatever they pick has to fulfill 2 or 3 of those qualities.
Two benefits, first it's a little less work for you, second, it gets them to flex their roleplaying muscles. Any answer they give is correct, they just have to justify it. You can then take their idea, add a condition or twist it a little.
I like this. My other suggestion for number four would be that the caster of the spell is the fifth macguffin, but they have to go on a adventure to find that information.
5- The Left Eye of Odin
Hopefully this isn't the eye still in his head. :)
5- The Left Eye of Odin
Hopefully this isn't the eye still in his head. :)
I've played a game where I stabbed Odin in his good eye... but it's a game that's still in development and is all about killing gods and trying to not succumb to your own mythic nature.
Odin had me impaled on his spear, straight through my heart. My sword was carved from Yggdrasil, and Yggdrasil decided I wasn't quite dead yet, so it grew a branch through the sword which reached into my chest and started pumping my heart for me. Then I stabbed him in the eye.
The game is built to create those kinds of moments.
I've played a game where I stabbed Odin in his good eye... but it's a game that's still in development and is all about killing gods and trying to not succumb to your own mythic nature.
(Cool name by the way.) Maybe it is just me, but this made me think: XENA! Yay :)
