I am running Age of Worms for a party of evil (but not moustache-twirlingly so) adventurers - including a cleric of Hextor. We are still in the Whispering Cairn, but I have been struck by the fact that Manzorian/Tenser and Celeste would hate such a cleric and his companions and are highly unlikely to work with them. In such circumstances, who could best fulfil their role in Greyhawk?
My thoughts are drawn to neutral or evil archmages and their servants, so Mordenkainen and a marut, or Rary and a fiend (perhaps an erinyes with class levels?).
What are your thoughts on this? Has anybody dealt with the same issue?
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I've never personally dealt with the evil party before (and you're right, switching out the archmage "quest giver"), but sounds like you've got a great option there with Rary. At the time the Age of Worms AP is going on, he's working with his number one ally Robilar... who would be a great stand in for Celeste. And they're down in Rary's domain, the Empire of the Bright Lands... which happens to be not too far from Diamond Lake. Rary would certainly want to stop the coming of the Age of Worms to protect his own domain there that he's been establishing for years.
Shrug. Just my thought!
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Ooh, Robilar is an excellent idea (or Bilarro, if I decide to run EtRG in parallel). Thank you.
I've had some more thoughts about this, but the more I plan, the more my campaign is turning into a tour through all of the great Greyhawk modules (Ghost Tower of Inverness, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, White Plume Mountain, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, the Star Cairns etc.).
For anybody running into the same issue as me, here is the way I am running it (it's long and convoluted, and there is a truncated version at the end).
The PCs are involved in the Star Cairns adventure (doing the cairns, but not uninterrupted). The doppelgangers from the first cairn are wanted criminals from the Brightlands, and the one with an amulet of teleportation can flee to her allies in Greyhawk (who are the doppelgangers in the Hall of Harsh Reflections). She then flees to Hardby, and to get the full bounty for the gang, the PCs will have to pursue her.
In Hardby, the doppelganger is caught by Robilar/Bilaro in his guise as "Captain Gallancz" (from EttRoG). "Gallancz" will release the doppelganger into the PCs' custody in return for retrieving the Soul Gem for him from the Ghost Tower of Inverness (in my campaign, this is Vecna's phylactery, and Rary has tasked Robilar with bringing it to him). This introduces the PCs to Robilar. Rary never gets the gem, incidentally, because it is stolen from Robilar by Edwin Tolstoff (the worm that walks from Elder Evils), but that's a whole different story.
In the Hall of Harsh Reflections, the PCs are recommended by Allustan to visit "Captain Gallancz" (Allustan knows who he is) for their introduction to Eligos, because Allustan and Eligos have fallen out of touch, but Allustan knows that Robilar is still happy to put his nose into other people's business.
The backstory to Ekaym in the Champion's Belt will be different. He is from the Brightlands rather than Redgorge, and when Lahaka was murdered, it kindled within him an all-consuming need for vengeance. Such was his wrath that he sells his soul to a powerful devil (in my campaign Eiseth, the PF Chronicles Queen of the Night of Vengeance) in return for revenge on the people and organisation responsible. His diabolic patron assigned to his case Tyaballa - an erinyes of the same ECL/CR as Celeste - who began investigating this and determined that responsibility for the murder lies with Loris Raknian in Greyhawk and the Ebon Triad. Using her contacts in the Brightlands, she sets up a meeting in Greyhawk with Robilar and accompanies Ekaym to Greyhawk.
Tyaballa's research also reveals the PCs' struggles with Loris Raknian and the Ebon Triad, and their work with Eligos so she arranges with Robilar to meet them all. To allow other adventures to be played, Eligos won't finish his research and be assassinated by Okoral until after the conclusion of Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk (and the PCs will catch Okoral in Eligos's manor to allow them revenge on him).
In EttRoG, the PCs will have likely killed Loris Raknian, rescued a ghaele eladrin (whom I am changing to be Celeste), and released Robilar from the God Trap beneath Castle Greyhawk.
Thus, I have several options for introducing the PCs to a powerful archmage at the start of the Spire of Long Shadows. If Robilar remains as the evil Bilaro, then he can introduce them to Rary; if the PCs rescued Celeste from the Prison of Zagyg, then she can introduce them to Tenser; and if Celeste remains imprisoned (or becomes the PCs' enemy) and Bilaro is replaced by the good old Robilar, then Tyaballa can introduce them to Rary.
Short version:
Ekaym is from the Brightlands and sells his soul to a devil for vengeance on behalf of Lahaka. The devil is an erinyes who introduces Ekaym to Robilar and then they both meet Eligos and the PCs. (If playing EttRoG, then Celeste can be the trapped Ghaele in the Tower of Zagig).
To set up the Spire of Long Shadows, then, evil PCs will have three options:
- Robilar introduces them to Rary
- The erinyes introduces them to Rary
- Celeste introduces them to Tenser (because she owes them a favour for rescuing her from the Tower of Zagig).