Too many ideas, I guess; I'm finding it difficult to keep it ordered and logical haha
Firstly, Hera appears to the party (in old woman guise, of course ;D). They help her cross a river, boom now she's a goddess and she tests their worth by making them do a dungeon. While there they find orcs and undead, which shouldn't exist in this world. Hera reveals undead are rising all over Hellathia (the setting) and it must be Hades' fault. Secretly it's not, it's actually Thanatos persuaded by Khaos but the gods fear accusing Hades will provoke open war. So Hera asks the party to go to every major city (there's thirteen, one for each Olympian and one for Hades)to find in each a piece of a magical item that when combined, can stop the undead or Hades, not sure which) for good. Anyone have ideas what this item could be???
Here it gets messy. After whatever is assembled (but what can it do?) and the players have concurrently saved every city they go to from other threats, I'd like a huge undead army formed so large only the army of the Bottle of the Bound can stop them. So there's a mission for the Bottle, but I don't want it to feel repetitive finding the three words all over the place, just as they did with the whatever magical item. :P
Plus I dunno if maybe Hades should form this army because he was so furious the gods tried to destroy him behind his back for something he didn't even do.
Then SOMEHOW we have to find out it's all Thanatos' fault, and that the whole saga is a plan of Khoas who knew a war between the gods would destroy creation leaving It sole dominion once more. Then they fight Khaos to drive him back (Cthulhu stats).
Also there's supposed to be a thing with Enyo (goddess of destructive war, closest linked to Ares) creating the orcs as perfect savage soldiers. Not sure what for aside from general destruction and mayhem. D:
And a thing with arcane magic becoming more common, which is banned because it is seen as a corruption of the gods' magic. So Hecate is probably in a subplot too.
Any help sorting out this mess would be appreciated so much. Never GMed before so I'm a little nervous with creating a good story. :/
Thank you for reading!
All right.
For the item they have to assemble, I choose a chariot. With huge scythe wheels. A Wheel here, a scythe there, the horses over there. Maybe mechanical ones, made by hephaistus.
Yes!!! Thank you both of you!! You're fantastic!!! A chariot to ride through the Underworld, a dagger to kill him, and just one more item because everyone likes things in threes. And it can turn out as they go to kill Hadēs (with Hera's daughter Angelos ready to replace him as ruler) Thanatos has him chained up, cue the reveal Hadēs is an alright guy. Thanatos is all like "godz suks, titans5life" and shows the titans bound in Tartarus are ready to support him. This also reveals one of the PCs worships the titan Hyperion (but isn't evil) so it's a big "woah" moment all round. Nevertheless, they kill Thanatos and free Hadēs who gets the undead under control. But alas Thanatos is a mere pawn in Khaos' grand designs.
Ah, don't you love it when the creative juices flow. xD
For anti-undead/Hades artifact:
A gem/sphere/whatever that can be used to imprison spirits: it sucks the animating forces out of the undead and Hades(the god) has lived in Hades(the place) long enough that it can trap him too. It mostly works passively whenever the players destroy undead near it, but can also be used offensively.
For the epic battle vs undead horde:
An artifact that can sway/control helpless spirits. When used with the above artifact your players can summon all the spirits from it as their own army of the dead. -Thanatos really wants this artifact because he can practically take over Hades(the place) in a second.
Yep, yep, totally using this. Thank you thank you! Gah I'm excited now! xD This completes the three and can be something the PCs get fairly early but don't know how to use it. I can a have a mysterious recurring villain who is a servant of big T, trying to get the sphere and kill PCs in the process. Cheers!!!