Help! Players Nuked the Whispering Tyrant

[ErichAD]

The energy is direct from the positive energy plane, so I don't think spell resistance will help.

I think the most entertaining thing to do would be to realign the planar soft spot on the isle of terror to the positive plane instead of the negative. It ends up impacting Tar-Baphon's power structure without killing him.

You could also have the device trigger whatever is left of the trap meant for Aroden in Xin-Grafar either trapping the inhabitants, or using them to fuel some alternate immortality for Tar-Baphon.

There's also the possibility of the device helping to fulfill the Prophecies of Kalistrade. The soft spot could be a remnant of the Golden Solidarities presence when Xin-Grafar was still Kestrillon. The combined planar energies trigger a mass mummification of the undead kestrillons creating a massive mindscape that displaces the island.

If they set the explosion off below the surface, in the city for example, then the effect could be pretty isolated with the positive energy mostly getting absorbed by the island and/or shooting off into space.

[Mudfoot]

If they weren't Mythic before, they should be after doing that.

[Artofregicide]

Mudfoot wrote:

If they weren't Mythic before, they should be after doing that.

I agree, but if that's what they did with a music nuke, imagine what they'd do with mythic...

*shivers*

[Skrayper]

Tom Marlow wrote:

So one of the tables I run has used the Synchrony device at the end of Ruins of Azlant to blow up Tar-Baphon’s (whispering tyrant) Ise of Terror.

Due to the number of tables I run and the tables being connected in a group cannon, the Ruins of Azlant was run after Tyrants grasp.

As such it was relatively known that Tar-baphon the Whispering tyrant had escaped. Some of the players where refugees looking for a new life, and all the players were shades Lawful/Chaotic/Neutral Neutral aligned.

So at the end of the adventure they have this Synchrony Device Nuke and decide to stick it to the undead king.
After a lot of stupid high rolls, they reprogram it, fill it up with positive energy, and send it off to detonate in the center of the Isle of Terror. Killing all undead and possibly every one in the surrounding nations.

So I am looking for ideas for repercussions and story hooks, to continue their off canon campaign.

Tldr: Players Nuked Tar-Baphon’s (whispering tyrant) Isle of Terror and I am looking for story ideas.

This reminds me of a letter I saw in Dragon Magazine (or possibly Dungeon) ages ago.

A player wrote in, asking much EXP his party got because they "destroyed the planet" (I cannot recall if this was Faerun, Greyhawk, or another setting). Basically it led to people writing in saying that their own (insert absurdly powerful character here) would have stopped it. Level 40, 50, 150, whatever. Of course, the folks at TSR were dumbfounded that people thought the system let you go that high.

But yeah, the "nuke a game setting" always reminds me of that story.

Good luck, btw.

[Artificial 20]

Tom Marlow wrote:

Artificial 20 wrote:

It sounds like one of your groups tried to do something original and interesting by combining various elements your setting draws from different sources, creating a novel and dramatic development. We can't be having with that.

It's time to crush those spirits. Remind these players of their station and insignificance in this fantasy world, and the foolishness of trying to change it substantially without following a proscribed path laid by higher minds. Really put some research into it. Pathfinder has a great range of powerful characters, monsters and outright deities, officially printed with abilities and resources that can easily invalidate their actions, which is obviously why they're there. You want to impress upon your group the richness of this setting, the grandness of its conflicts and the might of its major players, that the whole...

I am not mad at the players. Let me make that clear.

They had their fun,and now they are going to have an adventure to deal with the consequences. Will it be their characters? new? or old ones? we will see.

What are you trying to say? Your group dares to meddle with the greater balance of the setting, like they're some kind of publisher, and you don't want to grab every option off the top shelf to dogpile onto them for it?

People run games oddly these days. If that's what you're into though, I suppose it's worth mentioning in passing you could say the detonation affected the planar connection to the negative energy plane in Tar-Baphon's realm, partially retuning its alignment to roughly 50/50 with the positive energy plane. Since the first world mirrors the shadow plane in its cosmological position, residing between the material and positive planes as the shadow plane does between the material and negative planes, you could have fey creatures begin manifesting on the Isle of Terror as well as the usual undead, at first minor fairies that merely annoy Tar-Baphon in a comical fashion, but then stronger and greater fey that turn the island into a battleground between primal life and undeath. The players could engage in this new conflict of their own creation, most likely siding with the fey, since they already tried assassinating Tar-Baphon, leading to a whole new adventure to overthrow the Whispering Tyrant now his undead forces face credible opposition.

The Synchrony Device doesn't say it does any of that mind you, so once more I strongly recommend having the setting's deities launch a Divine Crusade of the Status Quo.

[Kurald Galain]

Artificial 20 wrote:

What are you trying to say? Your group dares to meddle with the greater balance of the setting, like they're some kind of publisher, and you don't want to grab every option off the top shelf to dogpile onto them for it?

Wow, looks like you've got some harsh and bitter experiences with railroad GMs.

You may have noticed that the OP is not into railroading, and neither are most of the suggestions in the thread...

[Tom Marlow]

ErichAD wrote:

You could also have the device trigger whatever is left of the trap meant for Aroden in Xin-Grafar

What trap?

[Tom Marlow]

Mudfoot wrote:

If they weren't Mythic before, they should be after doing that.

Hmmm True one horrific tier, maybe

[Tom Marlow]

Skrayper wrote:

This reminds me of a letter I saw in Dragon Magazine (or possibly Dungeon) ages ago.

A player wrote in, asking much EXP his party got because they "destroyed the planet" (I cannot recall if this was Faerun, Greyhawk, or another setting). Basically it led to people writing in saying that their own (insert absurdly powerful character here) would have stopped it. Level 40, 50, 150, whatever. Of course, the folks at TSR were dumbfounded that people thought the system let you go that high.

But yeah, the "nuke a game setting" always reminds me of that story.

Good luck, btw.

It is a good thing i do not run an EXP table, lol I need to look up that dragon mag

[Kurald Galain]

Skrayper wrote:

A player wrote in, asking much EXP his party got because they "destroyed the planet" (I cannot recall if this was Faerun, Greyhawk, or another setting).

Hey, I remember that!

They were playing Spelljammer, and one of the players broke the Crystal Sphere (which, by the rules, is completely impossible) and assumed this would instakill everybody on the planet (which is unlikely, given some of the characters and gods living there). Anyway it does sound pretty epic, but the subsequent question of "how much XP" sounds decidedly less epic :)

[ErichAD]

Tom Marlow wrote:

ErichAD wrote:

You could also have the device trigger whatever is left of the trap meant for Aroden in Xin-Grafar

What trap?

I'm sure there's someone here with better knowledge of the specifics.

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Well_of_Sorrows

It's an unsprung trap. The trap includes an open gate to a negative energy plane that isn't specifically named. The trap is built into a deep shaft in the wizard-king's pit. Whatever the trap's specific ability is, it was designed with the intention of making a deity conquerable and could have been set to trigger when in the presence of strong positive energy.

I'd take a look at who the party members are and figure out the most interesting way for this to work, but that island has been part of 2 quests for immortality and 1 quest to end the life of a god, so I'd expect the result to be a high energy event.

[The Raven Black]

So many recent brutal deaths, including many high level creatures. And the Mythic necromancer lich standing in the center of it all. Time to put that old well of pure negative energy to a proper necromantic purpose.

The PCs better hurry before Tar-Baphon's immense wave of undead becomes too strong. Not to mention that so many people will want to kill them rather than ally with them.

Good luck. They're gonna need it.

[Darigaaz the Igniter]

The Raven Black wrote:

So many recent brutal deaths, including many high level creatures. And the Mythic necromancer lich standing in the center of it all. Time to put that old well of pure negative energy to a proper necromantic purpose.

The PCs better hurry before Tar-Baphon's immense wave of undead becomes too strong. Not to mention that so many people will want to kill them rather than ally with them.

Good luck. They're gonna need it.

Shouldn't have to worry too much about undead from this, creatures suffering from positive energy overload literally explode

[CorvusMask]

Uh guys? Guys? Have you played the ruins of azlant or read it?

Because GM here isn't mentioning the

world destroying:

titan that is released by players activating the nuke

:'D

Also, judging by Tyrant's Grasp, if they used the positive energy explosion, there is now 500 mile radius mutated jungle in that entire area. Probably complete with creepy tumor flesh monsters

[Claxon]

CorvusMask wrote:

Uh guys? Guys? Have you played the ruins of azlant or read it?

Because GM here isn't mentioning the ** spoiler omitted ** :'D

Also, judging by Tyrant's Grasp, if they used the positive energy explosion, there is now 500 mile radius mutated jungle in that entire area. Probably complete with creepy tumor flesh monsters

Uhhh, where are you getting this information from?

Not that I don't believe you but I haven't played or read the Ruins of Azlant. I just read the description of the device on D20PFSRD.

[CorvusMask]

Claxon wrote:

CorvusMask wrote:

Uh guys? Guys? Have you played the ruins of azlant or read it?

Because GM here isn't mentioning the ** spoiler omitted ** :'D

Also, judging by Tyrant's Grasp, if they used the positive energy explosion, there is now 500 mile radius mutated jungle in that entire area. Probably complete with creepy tumor flesh monsters

Uhhh, where are you getting this information from?

Not that I don't believe you but I haven't played or read the Ruins of Azlant. I just read the description of the device on D20PFSRD.

Part of the adventure that notes that Azlanti didn't take account "planes between planes" when they created weapon and that launching weapon causes

planar boundaries to collapse and:

causing force damage explosion in chamber and a Hekatonkheires titan being released from its prison :D

The scenario is glorious glorious "mission failed" situation, not only do mass destruction happen, but PCs are very likely to personally die as well :D

(Ruins of Azlant is great AP, wish more people had chance to experience it)

[Claxon]

But what about your description of mutated jungle and tumor creatures?

[The Raven Black]

Darigaaz the Igniter wrote:

The Raven Black wrote:

So many recent brutal deaths, including many high level creatures. And the Mythic necromancer lich standing in the center of it all. Time to put that old well of pure negative energy to a proper necromantic purpose.

The PCs better hurry before Tar-Baphon's immense wave of undead becomes too strong. Not to mention that so many people will want to kill them rather than ally with them.

Good luck. They're gonna need it.

Shouldn't have to worry too much about undead from this, creatures suffering from positive energy overload literally explode

You do not need a corpse left to get some bona fide undead.

[CorvusMask]

Claxon wrote:

But what about your description of mutated jungle and tumor creatures?

Well not sure if there is any actual examples of tumor creatures, depends if you count yaoguai ;p

Positive energy explosions:

cause absolutely rapid growth of plant life and animal life. Including tapirs materializing from nothing(I'm not kidding, that is actual example that happens in that ap. Literal one if I remember correctly it was tapir xP) and plenty of plant monsters. There is reason why Gallowspire is more of Gallowgarden these days. And why there is blighted forest surrounding Tyrant's Grasp crater.

(basically read Tyrant's Grasp. Its bit inconsistent regarding it, but at least two books showcase that iirc)

[yukongil]

as for the mythic lich and his artifact phylactery, does it give a specific scenario for destroying it? Cause a positive energy nuke seems like it would be fitting way to destroy such an artifact.

seems kind of cheap to have the all the side-effects of the nuke, but don't have it kill what they went way off the reservation to kill.

[CorvusMask]

yukongil wrote:

as for the mythic lich and his artifact phylactery, does it give a specific scenario for destroying it? Cause a positive energy nuke seems like it would be fitting way to destroy such an artifact.

seems kind of cheap to have the all the side-effects of the nuke, but don't have it kill what they went way off the reservation to kill.

Problemo is that nobody knows where Lich's phylactery is. Also Tyrant's Grasp does show that wouldn't work considering what Tyrant does during the ap several times

[Kurald Galain]

yukongil wrote:

as for the mythic lich and his artifact phylactery, does it give a specific scenario for destroying it? Cause a positive energy nuke seems like it would be fitting way to destroy such an artifact.

The idea behind artifacts is that there is a singular specific way to destroy them (proverbially, throwing it into Mount Doom); and that anything else just doesn't work.

Aside from that, TB's phylactery is explicitly immune to all non-mythic damage; and Synchrony isn't mythic.

And aside from that, why would the phylactery would be on the Isle of Terror in the first place? Tar-Baphon has an int score well above the human scale, so give him a little credit for smart planning.

[Artofregicide]

So, I haven't read Ruins of Azlant, but that's beautiful. Definitely unleash the Titan on them, that's just from the book.

In terms of the positive energy explosion, I find the (spoilers) Tyrant's Grasp explanation (opposed to the generic mechanical explanation) to be more interesting. Also, don't forget what triggered this in the first place, and the consequences of inverting it...

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction...

If that's fun, anyway.

TB should still be alive unless you don't want to run a Golarion setting anymore or at least strongly homebrew it.

[yukongil]

Kurald Galain wrote:

yukongil wrote:

as for the mythic lich and his artifact phylactery, does it give a specific scenario for destroying it? Cause a positive energy nuke seems like it would be fitting way to destroy such an artifact.

The idea behind artifacts is that there is a singular specific way to destroy them (proverbially, throwing it into Mount Doom); and that anything else just doesn't work.

which I'm well aware of and in fact, is the reason I asked if there was a stated way to destroy it.

Quote:

Aside from that, TB's phylactery is explicitly immune to all non-mythic damage; and Synchrony isn't mythic.

seems more like an oversight than anything else, especially if* it was something said mythic lich was tooling around with.

Quote:

And aside from that, why would the phylactery would be on the Isle of Terror in the first place? Tar-Baphon has an int score well above the human scale, so give him a little credit for smart planning.

doesn't have to be on the Isle, just within 500 miles of it, which seems reasonable-ish.

*don't know anything about this AP other than what has been stated here, so I'm just guessing that the lich made it, but even if that weren't the case, this definitely seems like an artifact itself and that's the only thing that can put down a 10th tier mythic character, so I see no real reason why it shouldn't be considered mythic itself or be able to likewise damage mythic artifacts/creatures.

[Kurald Galain]

yukongil wrote:

doesn't have to be on the Isle, just within 500 miles of it, which seems reasonable-ish.

Not if you have post-super-genius intellect like Tar-Baphon. Rather, it is reasonable to dump it in the middle of the Negative Material Plane, or transmute it to a grain of sand and put it on a random beach on the other side of the world, or teleport it to the middle of Aucturn or something. Even none-too-smart Xykon hid his phylactery in a fortress on the Astral Plane, good luck finding that.

Quote:

*don't know anything about this AP

The catch is that these are two unrelated APs, hence why one uses mythic and the other doesn't.

[Matthew Downie]

High-concept idea: The massive positive energy event creates a new phenomenon that shakes up the moral foundations of the universe. The Whispering Tyrant recovers, and attempts to raise up a new army of minions, but because the dead were all heavily infused with positive energy, they come back as free-willed undead with no strong inherent evil tendencies, attempting to rebuild their former civilization.

[Claxon]

Kurald Galain wrote:

yukongil wrote:

doesn't have to be on the Isle, just within 500 miles of it, which seems reasonable-ish.

Not if you have post-super-genius intellect like Tar-Baphon. Rather, it is reasonable to dump it in the middle of the Negative Material Plane, or transmute it to a grain of sand and put it on a random beach on the other side of the world, or teleport it to the middle of Aucturn or something. Even none-too-smart Xykon hid his phylactery in a fortress on the Astral Plane, good luck finding that.

Quote:

*don't know anything about this AP

The catch is that these are two unrelated APs, hence why one uses mythic and the other doesn't.

Given information about obtaining tuning forks for private demiplanes that showed up in one the last books published for PF1 it's basically impossible to get to a private demiplane if you haven't been there before, don't have anything from that plane, etc.

The smartest thing to do would be for Tar-Baphon to have sent his phylactery to his own private demiplane, inaccessible to basically everyone but him.

I say basically, because I imagine with enough information and wishes there is probably a way to get there despite not having the required tuning forks or know where the demiplane is located relative to other planes.

Bonus points if Tar-Baphon made the demiplane into some sort of "planet" where there is a living society that tends and cares for the phylactery and has no idea TB is evil. In fact his phylactery somehow magically provides them with what they need to survive.

[Scavion]

Artifacts generally qualify for slaying Mythic characters. I think Tar-Baphon being destroyed is more interesting and dealing with the fallout of having every major faction on the planet directing their attention towards the party to be more entertaining than

"YOU FAIL ANYWAYS AND ACCOMPLISH NOTHING NYEHHHH"

[PossibleCabbage]

I was under the impression that Tar-Baphon's phylactery is secreted away somewhere by Urgathoa herself, so it's probably not on this plane.

So he gets nuked, reforms wherever his phylactery is, and tries to return to the seat of his power and discovers that despite all the people who died there, the region is now utterlly inhospitable to undead.

So not only does TB have to establish a new seat of power elsewhere on the planet, but he's probably got a bunch of stuff there that he'd like to get back somehow, but no undead minions can survive the lingering positive energy.

Also, the former gravelands are now a rainforest. The postive energy is going to kill everyone and everything, but when it peters out it's going to make plants grow out of control. We're talking like 300' tall trees and stuff like that.

[Foeclan]

I'm not sure if it's supposed to release a 'standard' CR24 Hekatonkheires, or one of the 3 originals, but either way, Tar-Baphon and a Hekatonkheires duking it out could be interesting to watch from a safe distance. Hekatonkheires can bypass DR/epic, and can literally jump between planes, so might have a chance to get to that demiplane if it really wanted.

[Kurald Galain]

Foeclan wrote:

Tar-Baphon and a Hekatonkheires duking it out could be interesting to watch from a safe distance. Hekatonkheires can bypass DR/epic, and can literally jump between planes, so might have a chance to get to that demiplane if it really wanted.

Hekaton can jump between planes once per year, so that's not great.

It appears that Tar-Baphon is immune to all of Hekaton's spell-like abilities (due to massive SR), as well as to its stunning slam (due to being undead); so Hekaton essentially has no options other than "hit the lich really hard". Yes, he'll get to the DR automatically, but TB's armor class is high enough that his primary will only connect 65% of the time, and TB has a ton of hit points.

On the other hand, TB has only about 50% chance of piercing Hekaton's SR, and TB's default spell selection (necromancy) is not great since Hekaton is immune to death effects. That means that by default, TB teleports out (Heka has no way of stopping that), prepares better spells, and comes back the next day...

...but there is an easier answer, and that is to cast Time Stop (force cage would also work, he has both spells). Then TB simply walks up and uses his paralyzing touch. With Heka's abysmal touch AC, that's 95% chance to hit; no SR; and if Heka makes the save (only a 60% chance against the massive DC!) then TB tries again the next round. End of story, Heka is permanently paralyzed, and the fight is over.

Still an interesting fight though :)

[Artofregicide]

Why does TB fight the Titan at all? He's exceptionally intelligent, and has nothing to gain in killing it.

He'd be better off pointing the Hekaton at the PCs or another enemy either directly or indirectly. Or just let it wreck havoc where he's not and use the time to prepare.

[Tom Marlow]

Kurald Galain wrote:

yukongil wrote:

as for the mythic lich and his artifact phylactery, does it give a specific scenario for destroying it? Cause a positive energy nuke seems like it would be fitting way to destroy such an artifact.

The idea behind artifacts is that there is a singular specific way to destroy them (proverbially, throwing it into Mount Doom); and that anything else just doesn't work.

Aside from that, TB's phylactery is explicitly immune to all non-mythic damage; and Synchrony isn't mythic.

And aside from that, why would the phylactery would be on the Isle of Terror in the first place? Tar-Baphon has an int score well above the human scale, so give him a little credit for smart planning.

My head canon for the Phylactery's destruction was Tar-Baphons own tears of regret, which (in theory) would not be an issue bringing up in the coming games.

[Tom Marlow]

Thread Necromancers' Guild wrote:

This is unacceptable mass murder of innocent undead and attempted assassination of a legitimate post-living political leader.

Kill the characters, raise them as undead.

If that doesn't work (or even if does); kill the players, raise them as undead.

Yes, Quite Right. They should get a sternly written letter of exploding runes at the very least

[Tom Marlow]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

I was under the impression that Tar-Baphon's phylactery is secreted away somewhere by Urgathoa herself, so it's probably not on this plane.

So he gets nuked, reforms wherever his phylactery is, and tries to return to the seat of his power and discovers that despite all the people who died there, the region is now utterlly inhospitable to undead.

So not only does TB have to establish a new seat of power elsewhere on the planet, but he's probably got a bunch of stuff there that he'd like to get back somehow, but no undead minions can survive the lingering positive energy.

Also, the former gravelands are now a rainforest. The postive energy is going to kill everyone and everything, but when it peters out it's going to make plants grow out of control. We're talking like 300' tall trees and stuff like that.

Neat, I really like this angle. Thanks

[Foeclan]

Artofregicide wrote:

Why does TB fight the Titan at all? He's exceptionally intelligent, and has nothing to gain in killing it.

He'd be better off pointing the Hekaton at the PCs or another enemy either directly or indirectly. Or just let it wreck havoc where he's not and use the time to prepare.

Presumably, all this happens in rapid succession. TB's sitting around, minding his own lich-y business, when BOOM, everything in a 500 mile radius (including him) gets vaporized and a Titan shows up in the midst of it.

TB reforms wherever his phylactery is, checks in on what truck just hit him, and finds a Titan laying waste to Golarion. Unless the PCs signed their bomb, that seems like a pretty good reason for TB to think the Titan was responsible.

While TB will reform at his phylactery, none of his stuff will. That all got blown up. His magic items (aside from actual artifacts), everything he's been working on, his armies, basically all of his current plans, up in smoke. Seems like the sort of thing one might take personally. And unless he has reason to dig into it further, he might never even know the PCs were involved. After all, what's more likely to try and take him down, a random group of nobodies off in Azlant, or an actual Titan?

[Kurald Galain]

Foeclan wrote:

Presumably, all this happens in rapid succession. TB's sitting around, minding his own lich-y business, when BOOM, everything in a 500 mile radius (including him) gets vaporized and a Titan shows up in the midst of it.

You mean excluding him :) TB has like four different way of being immune to Synchrony, not counting his phylactery.

Also, Hekaton shows up at its prison (presumably, where the party found Synchrony), not at ground zero.

I mean, there's no reason at all for TB and Heka to end up fighting; but if they do, then TB wins pretty easily. And probably turns Heka into his undead minion, to replace all those minions he lost. Either way, the likely outcome is for Heka to start chasing the PCs.

[Artofregicide]

Wait, what if TB and the Titan start fighting, but then realize they actually have a lot in common like Spell Resistance and a CR higher than 20, and fall in love?

My players spent an hour trying to unionize and then start a dating service for awakened golems.

Stranger things have happened, is my point.

[Thread Necromancers' Guild]

Artofregicide wrote:

Wait, what if TB and the Titan start fighting, but then realize they actually have a lot in common like Spell Resistance and a CR higher than 20, and fall in love?

My players spent an hour trying to unionize and then start a dating service for awakened golems.

Stranger things have happened, is my point.

This is just offensive. We do not condone slander towards a legitimate post-living political person.

[PossibleCabbage]

I might just handwave "dealing with the Hekatonkheires" is why a bunch of the big powerful entities invested in the continuance of reality have better things to do than "punish the PCs."

[Artofregicide]

PossibleCabbage wrote:

I might just handwave "dealing with the Hekatonkheires" is why a bunch of the big powerful entities invested in the continuance of reality have better things to do than "punish the PCs."

I'm still on team Hekatonkheires and TB romance, but I'm also super interested in the mega jungle that could grow up from the effects of the device, and the resulting negative energy backlash.

That could be a really interesting setting, tbh. I'm a fan of the "what if the PCs lose" setting ideas.

[Foeclan]

Kurald Galain wrote:

Foeclan wrote:

Presumably, all this happens in rapid succession. TB's sitting around, minding his own lich-y business, when BOOM, everything in a 500 mile radius (including him) gets vaporized and a Titan shows up in the midst of it.

You mean excluding him :) TB has like four different way of being immune to Synchrony, not counting his phylactery.

Also, Hekaton shows up at its prison (presumably, where the party found Synchrony), not at ground zero.

No, I mean including him.

One could argue that it counts as 'channeling from a non-mythic source', to which he's immune, but you can just as easily call it 'positive energy damage', from which he takes half. Ultimately, it's the GM's call on whether it blows him up. They asked for ideas on stuff to do as a followup. 'TB vs. Titan' sounds like an interesting one.

I don't have the module that describes Synchrony, but I think someone said that its detonation tears open the barriers between planes, releasing the Hekatonkheires, so I'd expect it to show up wherever the bomb went off. Based on the Hekatonkheires writeup, the 3 originals are adrift 'in the unknown expanses between planes', and the CR24 writeup are their 'lesser spawn'. If Synchrony really does tear down the barriers between the planes, then it may have been intended to be one of those original 3, who'd probably be at least a match for TB.

If you do want this to be 'them offing TB', but still want there to be more work to do, then maybe when Synchrony blows up, it tears down the barrier between planes, leaving TB's demiplane wide open because his frequent travels to it left it 'adjacent' to the Isle. The PCs have one shot to take him out permanently, and face unknown dangers as they break into the demiplane, fighting the clock before he revives.

[yukongil]

let it be one of the 3 first Hekas and then build it to be a match for the lich and then let the players run it and have an epic throwdown! Bonus points if the lich goes all Lo Pan and summons a giant energy construct to do battle for him and then you can have a giant monster fight!

always err on the side of Giant-Monster Fight

[PossibleCabbage]

Another thing I might handwave is to adjust the blast area so that it doesn't annihilate select major population centers, instead it ended right in the vicinity of those population centers so "encroaching temperate megajungle" (aka "the fangwood grew fangs") is a serious problem confronted by the people who lived outside the annihilating blast.

[CorvusMask]

Foeclan wrote:

Kurald Galain wrote:

Foeclan wrote:

Presumably, all this happens in rapid succession. TB's sitting around, minding his own lich-y business, when BOOM, everything in a 500 mile radius (including him) gets vaporized and a Titan shows up in the midst of it.

You mean excluding him :) TB has like four different way of being immune to Synchrony, not counting his phylactery.

Also, Hekaton shows up at its prison (presumably, where the party found Synchrony), not at ground zero.

No, I mean including him.

One could argue that it counts as 'channeling from a non-mythic source', to which he's immune, but you can just as easily call it 'positive energy damage', from which he takes half. Ultimately, it's the GM's call on whether it blows him up. They asked for ideas on stuff to do as a followup. 'TB vs. Titan' sounds like an interesting one.

I don't have the module that describes Synchrony, but I think someone said that its detonation tears open the barriers between planes, releasing the Hekatonkheires, so I'd expect it to show up wherever the bomb went off. Based on the Hekatonkheires writeup, the 3 originals are adrift 'in the unknown expanses between planes', and the CR24 writeup are their 'lesser spawn'. If Synchrony really does tear down the barriers between the planes, then it may have been intended to be one of those original 3, who'd probably be at least a match for TB.

If you do want this to be 'them offing TB', but still want there to be more work to do, then maybe when Synchrony blows up, it tears down the barrier between planes, leaving TB's demiplane wide open because his frequent travels to it left it 'adjacent' to the Isle. The PCs have one shot to take him out permanently, and face unknown dangers as they break into the demiplane, fighting the clock before he revives.

It is listed as one of CR 24 ones yeah

[Melkiador]

Probably too late for this, but if you wanted to make things bad but not too bad, you could say that all of that concentrated negative energy at ground zero got pushed out in front of the positive energy wave. That negative energy push back could result in the blast being smaller than expected, but leaving a new ring of negative energy. So, all around the circumference of this smaller blast, undead start spontaneously rising up, and maybe existing undead become much, much stronger.