Artifact Destruction

[Dragon, Aim, Fire!]

Hey all, let me run a scenario by you all:

Players successfully retrieved the Axe of Dwarvish Lords after a long adventure and I fully expected they would be like most dirty murderhobos and keep it in order to do some serious violence in the upcoming campaign finale, but as players are wont to do, they surprised me and took it in a weird direction: they want to destroy the Axe and channel the magic into a location, effectively creating a mythal-like zone of power. I have no problem with this at face value, but I want them to have to complete a potent quest or some other manner of monumental task in order to do so (it's a magical artifact after all!).

What quest do I saddle them with? What task must they complete? What would you do?

[GM Rednal]

Well, it does have a pre-written method of destruction... start with that and build the adventure out from there?

[Duiker]

GM Rednal wrote:

Well, it does have a pre-written method of destruction... start with that and build the adventure out from there?

A good idea, but it's going to take some creativity on that one: "The Axe of the Dwarvish Lords rusts away to nothing if it is ever used by a goblin to behead a dwarven king."

[skizzerz]

Lots of options for that, can dominate a goblin (or maybe just convince one to work with you with promises of fire), geas/quest, or even reincarnate a PC or friendly NPC into a goblin. Then there's the matter of finding and assassinating a dwarven king. Probably would need to do it in the location of the eventual zone of power, so need a way to lure the king there (perhaps start a war? Those always work out well... :P)

Lots of fuzzy details, but sounds like a good adventure (may even rival an AP in scope if you go all out).

[Valandil Ancalime]

What is a "mythal-like zone of power"? You would probably get better answers if you listed the pcs classes, levels, what they want it to do and stuff.

Why do they need to destroy it? That's just going to get most dwarves angry at them.

After a suitable quest they can "permanently"(as permanent as things are with magic) put it into a stone and channel it's power into the area. Perhaps with a "only the true king can pull this axe from this stone" clause.

The quest could include;
- getting the approval (or active participation) from a dwarf of royal blood
- finding a suitable rare stone (on the elemental plane of earth)and moving it to the suitable location
- getting the approval of some patron God/Goddess
- collecting several rare ingredients for the ritual

[GM Rednal]

Assuming they didn't spell "mythic" wrong, they're probably referring to this.

[Dastis]

I'm with skizzerz on this. If you can come up with at least 2 solutions that might work so can the players. This sounds like a great opportunity for the players to shape how the story proceeds. For dm prepwork you would probably be best served coming up with some dwarven kingdoms and a few different goblins. Maybe throw in a segment for them to learn how to do what they want to do. Add in a few plot hooks and your done.

Plot Hooks
A bard singing of the glory of King Hrothgar
A rugged caravan that claims to have been attacked by the most viscous goblin raiders
A researcher of dwarven lore posts a notice in the nearby tavern

Goblins
Moglius Hob, the village idiot, seeks a friend
Talor Darkblade, professional assassin, never easy to find but harder to pay
Galor the Vast, the super gluttonous leader of a large bandit clan