Hey all, so I have an interesting and potentially fun thing for the community to go absolutely nuts with.
Without spoilers, I'm GM'ing Rise of the Runelords right now and having just worked their way through the caverns, my players are now in the Fort of book 3.
Lazarus - Human Rogue (Poisoner) 8
Notable features: Bald with a Sihedron Tattoo on the back of his head. He's keeping an eye on the party for the Lord-Mayor of Magnimar (Grobaras), following the recent attempted of Assassination of Grobaras himself, from one of Magnimars very own City Guards who joined the party before being taken away for execution. He also paid bail for Goruk who was imprisoned briefly for slapping their Lord-Mayor awake and then swinging at Grobaras' Guards for attempting to escort him off the premises. Wields two Shortswords, multiple daggers and a Longbow.
Goruk - Half-Orc Anti-Paladin (Insinuator) 8
Notable features: Doesn't like being touched, having been previously tortured. Studies and searches for Thassilonian magic/rituals. Isn't anyones lapdog. Does as he pleases and adventures with the party for his own selfish reasons. Wields Sword and Board.
Arizar - Half-Orc Alchemist (Beastmorph) 8
Notable features: Has absurd AC, took the unstable Mutagen, throws bombs and wields a Greataxe. More often than not, the group diplomat. Also the only character to still be alive from the start of the entire Adventure Path.
Aeron - Half-Orc Shoanti Savage Barbarian 8
Notable features: Skoan Quah tribe. Only fights out of necessity, not pleasure - A paficist by default. He believes he's human, is a 4th generation Half-Orc and has focused heavily on pass for human enough so that aside from his size (he's 6'10), he looks as human as any other. Wields a +2 Earth Breaker.
So, though this is not something written in the AP itself, a situation has come about. The player of Goruk had gone through three characters upon reaching the last quarter of RotRL's second book. Naturally, he was deflated by it all, so I said he could bring one of his previous characters back, so he actually gets to run with one of his concepts. He brought his Anti-Paladin back.
I ruled that for one reason or another he'd somehow escaped the Abyss and made his way back into the material plane. Naturally, the first thing he did was casually stroll up to the adventuring party after his original body was cremated in Sandpoint. Essentially, this is now his soul that has taken physical form in the real world.
Anyway, I homebrewed some extra abilities for him:
Damage Reduction: 5 vs good, increasing by 5 every 5 levels thereafter.
At 6th level, you may willingly engulf your hand in red and black flame as a swift action. When touching a creature in this way, as a standard action you cause that creature to be shaken (DC of 10+character level+charisma mod fort negates) for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. In addition, this touch drains a number of hit points equal to your charisma modifier. You may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier.
At 10th level, when you touch a creature with your Abyssal Flame ability, you may transfer any one condition you're currently suffering to that creature. They must make a Fortitude save equal to the original DC+your Charisma modifier or be stricken with that condition. In addition, when you drain hit points from a creature, you gain double the amount you normally would.
At 14th level, when you touch a creature with your Abyssal Flame ability, you may substitute the HP drain to instead drain ability points from your target. This drain heals any ability damage you are currently suffering up to your Charisma modifier, as you siphon the very essence of your opponents soul into your own mortal vessel. Creatures touched in this way may make a Fortitude save equal to 10 + your character level & Charisma mod to avoid this altogether or suffer the ability damage penalties as normal. This can effect even those with immunity to fear.
So...
That in mind, I told the player this isn't a free life. He's not aware of this yet, but having upset the natural balance of the world through his own selfish means, Pharasma is not happy. Todays session had the first of her minions leave its natural plane - A Vanth Psychopomp found him when he was on low life. I roleplayed that only he could see it, but those within range would still be effected by its fear effect/aura. Naturally, they thought he was crazy talking to something out loud that wasn't there (to them at least).
It's gone away for now, but will be constantly stalking him and any time he's alone, it'll strike. If he takes that down, I'll send two more after him. If he takes that down, I'll send four more after him, capping at 8. I'll then change the type of Psychopomp that's after him until hopefully I get to send Pharasmas herald after him.
That's not all, though. I gave him some leeway as to how he returned to the natural world in the first place. He told me today that he acquired the name of a Balor and so long as he holds that name, he holds power over the Demon. I'm fine with this, so I decided to roll a dice behind the scenes - 1. It's a simple Balor. 2. It's a Balor Lord..... I rolled a 2.
So, though he's using the power of this creature to essentially be immortal right now, leaving Hell/The Abyss freely whenever he dies, eventually I'm going to have it that the Balor Lord is so done with him, Goruk will stop going to the Abyss altogether and just revive on the spot over and over again.
The main issues I have is power level wise, the Balor Lord is CR25. Goruk is level 8. The Balor can kill Goruk with ease, but should Goruk find another way back to life, the Balor knows his true name will no longer be safe. Naturally, the Balor Lord will be looking into things from the Abyss, researching ways to get out of this ordeal.
So, I ask you all - What can the Balor Lord do to ensure Goruks permanent death and get out of this deal? Is there anything even more creative you can think of based on what I've said about Goruks actions so far? Pharasma is now essentially warring against his existence behind the scenes.
If Goruk dies, his entire body will disappear every time now, as it goes back down to the Abyss. His physical body got cremated after all, so all that's left is his tainted soul returning in physical form.
Hopefully this is a fun one for you all. I see Goruk either becoming a Demon Lord himself or becoming immortal, forever defying Pharasmas will and making a ridiculous amount of enemies along the way. Please go nuts!
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He only thinks he knows the true name of a Balor Lord. The Balor is using Goruk as his agent on the material plane, but he doesn't know it yet. Alternatively, the Balor Lord is just playing a sick game with Goruk.
Or, Goruk's original body is destroyed and he is now an extraplanar outsider. His soul and body are one. If he dies, his soul is destroyed. He can be banished to the abyss. Goruk is ofcourse unaware of this fact and has no idea why Enlarge Person doesn't work on him anymore.
Or both. You could do both.
@Meirril - Haha, your first two sentences are actually what I had as a potential outcome in my head at the time of creating this post.
All of this actually has nothing to do with the Rise of the Runelords AP and is very character specific, so I have the freedom to go through with this, which is nice, but also bad for Goruk. The AP itself only runs up to level 17 (18 if I'm nice) and this will in fact be the players last Pathfinder outing, since he enjoys the mechanics of 5th edition more.
So, I'd like his character to go out in an epic way.
As such, I do really like all of your ideas and those suggested above your post. I just don't know how I can go about it for now. I think a good idea would be to tally how many times he's died and think of suitable things that change about him every time.
2 deaths - Each day he needs to start making Will saves. Failure means I control some of his actions (as if controlling the Balor through him).
4 deaths - Every day there is a 50% chance the Balor will be in control.
8 deaths - The Balor Lord assumes full control of Goruks body, with Goruk being at the mercy of whatever creatures reside in the abyss. If Goruk dies, the Balor does and vice versa.
Something like that, but if you'd all like to further suggest things here, it'd be great to see how far you can stretch your ideas!
I'll definitely ramp up the difficulty with Psychopomps, so he'll continue to have them against him (again, only attacking when he's alone). Additionally, he'll have the traps and encounters to deal with, likely killing him at some point and risk potentially drawing unwanted attention from Demon Hunters.
Also, outside of Goruk, as Aeron has the Spirit Totem Rage Powers, I've decided to rule that any characters who die from this point on will return as additional Spirits for the Barbarian to fight alongside (he said to me the conjured spirits are fallen war heroes, so I felt this would be a nice touch).