So in my current campaign, the party [fighter 6, druid 6, Abyssal sorcerer 6, Abjurist Wizard 7] is chasing after a big-bad that is in the process of assembling an army of undead and demons. He gave one of his vampire minions an artifact to help it go more quickly.
It’s a rickety archway made of bones strung with a dozen decaying skulls. It radiates very strongly of conjuration and necromancy and so far has been used to Gate (as the spell) to the Negative Energy Plane (where the BBEG is hiding at the moment).
In the world I’ve made, creating and controlling undead are the ultimate crimes punishable by death and chances are the party’s gonna want to destroy it as soon as possible. I was thinking perhaps they need to deal 50 fire damage and 50 positive energy damage to it in 1 round to completely destroy it but that feels too easy a way to destroy even a minor artifact.
So, should it have any other uses other than Gate (to Neg. Energy Plane)?
And how should it be destroyed?
I would certainly consider it a Mayor artifact if in your world (as you attested it is) it is seen as the greatest crime to create undead.
For mayor artifacts, simply doing damage seems indeed a little..... underwhelming. maybe try these
- Create a portal to the plane of positive energy in the same location, the caster has to go trough both gates simultaneously and die from the fallout
- An angel (or other holy creature) has to willingly stand in the portals threshold, it can now be closed with positive energy, forever locking the angel in the plane of negative energy
- Toss trough the gate the with spell and holy water purified ashes of an ancient lich
- Have a champion of good absorb a torrent of negative energy to weaken the gate, it can now be destroyed with damage as you suggested, this will probably kill the hero
Anyway, the point is to make it feel epic, even impossible at first glance. and then help them trough it. In the fact of such an evil artifact. Heroes of good will probably be not that hard to find nor unwilling to sacrifice themselves, same for holy creatures.
make your players feel bad for having to sacrifice so much yet proud of stopping this terrible evil and you should be fine no matter what you choose to do with it
I would certainly consider it a Mayor artifact if in your world (as you attested it is) it is seen as the greatest crime to create undead.
For mayor artifacts, simply doing damage seems indeed a little..... underwhelming. maybe try these
- Create a portal to the plane of positive energy in the same location, the caster has to go trough both gates simultaneously and die from the fallout
- An angel (or other holy creature) has to willingly stand in the portals threshold, it can now be closed with positive energy, forever locking the angel in the plane of negative energy
- Toss trough the gate the with spell and holy water purified ashes of an ancient lich
- Have a champion of good absorb a torrent of negative energy to weaken the gate, it can now be destroyed with damage as you suggested, this will probably kill the hero
Anyway, the point is to make it feel epic, even impossible at first glance. and then help them trough it. In the fact of such an evil artifact. Heroes of good will probably be not that hard to find nor unwilling to sacrifice themselves, same for holy creatures.
make your players feel bad for having to sacrifice so much yet proud of stopping this terrible evil and you should be fine no matter what you choose to do with it
I really like the idea of an angel or other holy outsider having to willingly trap themselves in the Neg. Energy Plane to allow the party to break the gate.
I'd also like to give them the option to rescue her when they get to higher levels though I’m not sure how. The artifact would probably bestow a curse on the angel, acting effectively like a semi-permanent Imprisonment (except instead of being trapped below the earth, it’s trapped in that plane) and can only be broken by the Freedom spell.
Or I could say that they arrive too late and that the Neg. Energy plane has corrupted her too much already, give her an undead template and make her a villain in this or the next campaign…
I really like the idea of an angel or other holy outsider having to willingly trap themselves in the Neg. Energy Plane to allow the party to break the gate.
** spoiler omitted **
I'd also like to give them the option to rescue her when they get to higher levels though I’m not sure how. The artifact would probably...
Glad to be of help,
Thanks so much guys. It really helped. Here's what I'm going with: a good aligned outsider must willingly step through it knowing they'll be permanently trapped and then the archway and the surrounding land must be made holy (Hallow) and anchored to our world (Dimensional Anchor). After that it will burst into cold black flames and burn to ash.
I might even have the book they get this info from suggest they also scatter the ashes as far apart as possible, just to freak them out a little more.