So, it took my gaming group over a year and a half but we finished it!
Now, I am faced with the difficult task of continuing the adventure. I am wondering if anyone has plotted out any campaigns in the post Savage Tide world.
One of my PCs has become the prince of demons; however, Orcus control's the city of Lemoriax and the towers of Abyssam have been stolen by another power. Book 12 mentions that invading Lemoriax is a campaign in and of itself so I'm thinking of making this the next step. Anyone do anything like this? The aura of demonic command will mess with things a bit but there should be plenty of undead from the legions to create some tension.
Any ideas are welcome and I would love some stats if you have them.
No one went epic with this? Okay, I'll set something up.
On a side note, does anyone know if a layout of the city of Lemoriax has ever been published?
I started this campaign years ago and I'm just approaching Ch 7. While I expect that we will get fairly far into epic before ending it, I plan on the death of Demogorgon (or the party) to be the end of the campaign. I will be checking out what you come up with though.
hmm.
For my party, if i do any epilogue/continuation stuff, they would end up back on the isle and dealing with the fallout of the things leading to where they got to. Iggwilv's plans on oerth (and taking up residence on the isle) I suspect my people will want out of the abyss as soon as inhumanly possible.
Well, as I see it there are four things that need to be done to claim Gaping Maw after a pc becomes the prince: (1) kill and/or bring Demogorgan's clones to heel; (2) kill and/or bring Belcharesk to heel; (3) recapture Lemoriax; and (4) claim Abyssm.
Since Abyssm is no longer in Gaping Maw in my campaign, that leaves three primary goals.
I see the clones as primarily duels as the aura of demonic command will deal with any lesser tanar'ri that are around.
Belcharesk is either a duel or a slight dungeon crawl, depending on how long they wait to confront him.
Lemoriax and Abyssm are the real issues. I assume that Demogorgan would have left traps and guardians that would assault anyone except itself.
Lemoriax is occupied by the legions of Orcus, primarily undead creatures. As such, I see the new prince fighting various battles of undead. I'm thinking of requiring a few rituals on top of ziggarats in order to gain the ability to bring the morphic qualities of the city to bare against the invaders.
Then of course any other demon prince can take offense at the new prince of demons, especially if they wanted the throne of the abyss for themselves. Orcus springs to mind, but also Malcanthet and Graz'zt.
There are of course the other demon princes/princeses, baatezu lords, archon lords, and anyone else looking to carve a name out of the weakest demon prince's hide. Assassination attempts will be a central theme/anoyance.
So, we had our first "Claiming Gaping Maw" session last weekend. I ruled that until the new Prince of Demons (PoD)reigned in the other major powers on the layer and retook Lemoriax, that he can't control the morphic qualities of the plane.
Just in case my PCs are smart enough to check these boards, I won't reveal any information that they haven't already learned.
There are five major players outside of Lemoriax that the PoD needs to bring under his control or destroy.
First, the PCs went to the Claws of Belcharesk. The Balor Lord, Belcharesk, was the heir apparent of Demogorgan and did not appear during the invasion as he was repelling Charon and his hordes. Belcharesk is listed as a Balor with 4 levels of fighter in Demogorgan's write up in Dragon; I added the improved spell-like abilities in the balor entry in the bestiary. Stats are the typical balor with the following modifications:
Belcheresk, Balor Ftr 4 (cr 25)
CE Large Outsider (chaotic, evil, demon)
Str 50 (base 44), Dex 29 (base 23), Con 46 (base 40),
Int 26, Wis 24, Chr 30
A/C 48 (ff 44/touch 17) (+4 defl, +4 dex, +20 Nat, -1 size, +11 Armor)
HP: 500 (24d10+360), fast heal 3, Regenration 1
Saves: Fort +35, Reflex +17, Will +26
DR: 15/epic; Immunities: Electricity, Fire & Poison
Resist: acid 10 & cold 10
SR: 35
Speed: 30', fly 60'(good) [armor reduction]
Base attack: +22; CMB: +40; CMD: 60
Melee: Long Sw (vorpal) +44/39/34/29 (2d6+25/17-20,x2,vorpal/+2d6 vs. good or chaotic outsiders) & Whip (vorpal) +44/39/34 (1d4+15+1d6fire+1d6electricity/20,x2,vorpal) OR Long Sw (vorpal) +46 (8d6+25/17-20,x2,vorpal/+2d6 vs. good or chaotic outsiders) OR Whip +46 (4d4+25+1d6fire+1d6electricity/20,x2+1d10fire+1d10electricity,vorpal)
Space: 10', Reach: 10'(20' with whip)
Spell-like Abilities: (CL 24)
Constant - true seeing; unholy aura
At will - (regular plus) divine power, freedom of movement, death ward, control water, water breathing, mirror image
3/day - (regular plus) control weather, whirlwind, heal, quicken mirror image
Feats: (regular plus) Fast Healing (epic), Quicken Spell-Like Ability(mirror image), Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, Greater Vital Strike
Skills: (regular plus) Know(nature)+27, Know(dungeoneering) +27, Know(arcana) +27
Equipment: +5 large pearl breastplate armor (artifact that allows control of aquatic creatures on gaping maw [exact abilities pending]), +5 large unholy keen ghost touch bane (chaotic outsider) long sword, +5 large flaming burst shocking burst ghost touch whip, Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Counterspells (disintegrate), Belt of physical perfection +6, Amulet of Natural Armor +4, Wand of Dimensional Anchor(25)
The aura of demonic command took care of the lesser demons and kept the fight between the PCs and Belcheresk. I didn't award xp for the demons being kept out of the fight.
Second, Demogorgan's clones (Bagromar and Tetradarian) survived the invasion which means that the PoD needs to kill them or make them servants. See the adventure path for stats on them.
Third, there is a half-fiend kraken within the depths of Gaping Maw by the name of Phy'siv'lap'tikor. The kraken is not canon but it went along with the idea that Demogorgan had tried to make all the kraken his servants. This particular nasty creature has come to contest the rulership of the depths. (stats will follow once the PCs get that far).
Forth, there is another unknown presence in the watery depths of Gaping Maw; however, the PCs haven't discovered what it is yet.
The PoD wasn't given free reign to move about the realm as the assassins began to come. The first hit squad was a balor and 6 glabrezu demons (all with the abyssal bound soul feat) sent by Graz'zt (encounter level 21). They were all equiped with magic to bypass the PoD's damage reduction (didn't matter after the mage disjoined them on the first round).
The second hit squad was a group of devils sent by (insert your Ruler of Nine or Dark Eight General, mine was the demi-god Gargauth). There were 8 horned devils with +5 spiked chains (encounter level 21).
There are more hit squads planned but I will save that until after our next session.