Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 umbralknight Dec 24, 2008 9:39:28	Hi everyone, I'm in need of some ideas for my campaign. Here's the background; My players are adventuring around Mulhorand and Unther. Since about level 7 (they are now 15-16ish), they have been in the employ of the Emerald Wheel, a merchant company that is a subsidiary of the Rundeen Consortium. The Emerald Wheel has been paying my PCs to investigate strange occurances that have been disruptive to its trade practices. The "strange occurances" in question are a "lizard war" that is being fought by powerful repitilian beings. The "lizard war" is the whole Okothian sarruhk vs. khaasta drama outlined in Serpent Kingdoms. Thus far my players have identified the khaastas (who have cut a deal with the Red Wizard Zulkir of Conjuration, Nevron), but don't know who they are fighting or why. What my players don't know; The Emerald Wheel is a front being used by the yuan-ti of House Se'Sehen who were dispatched from Serpentes to invistigate how the sarruhk of Okoth are involved in Sseth's current state (if you don't know what I'm talking about, the yuan-ti/sarruhk god Sseth was imprisoned and suplanted by the Mulhorandi god Set with the help of the sarruhk of Okoth, an ancient sarruhk empire that has recently become somewhat active again). Via the Emerald Wheel, the yuan-ti are manipulating my players into doing a lot of their dirty work for them. What I need your help with; Okay, so here's what I'm planning. I'm building up to a dramatic climax which involves Sseth being freed, my players somehow contributing to this (read; being tricked by the yuan-ti into helping getting Sseth set free). My problem is that I have no idea how to free Sseth. I'm not quite sure how he was bound in the first place. I would love some ideas on how to work this in. My thoughts were along the following lines; A) The PCs assist in the capture of Pil'it'ith, the leader of the Okothian sarruhk and former chosen of Sseth, who betrayed his god in favour of Set. After his capture, he is sacrificed to Sseth, and because he was formerly Sseth's Chosen, this single act is enough to empower the serpent god to break free. The problem with this approach is that it would have to wait until my players got deep into epic levels. Pil'it'ith is CR 36 for Pete's sake, and is guarded by a fortress/ruin full of the most badass creatures in Faerunian history. Kindnapping him would be a bit ludicrous. Essentially, this whole idea is only in the mix because Pil'it'ith's sacrifice to Sseth being the thing that frees old snakey is an idea that I like. But its just not practical. B) The PCs take point in an assualt on {insert generic ancient ruin here} to disrupt {insert generic evil ritual here}, which is maintaining Sseth's imprisonment. The player's would probably not fight any actual sarruhk, but rather priests of Set and some lesser serpentfolk. This is probably a better idea than A, but it feels too bland and cliche. C) The PCs recover a powerful artifact capable of breaking Sseth's bonds when used in {insert generic evil ritual here}. Probably the best idea of the three, but pretty broad. I'm not sure what said artifact would be and how it would relate to whats going on. So yeah. I would really appreciate any ideas you could throw into the mix, or if you could fix any of mine so that they are no longer lame or grossly impractical. My creativity is currently in a major downspiral so you'd be helping me out massively.
#2 lord_karsus Dec 24, 2008 10:03:15	-A combination of all of them, then, partially: Pil'it'ith, a former Chosen of Sseth, lost his power when he abandoned Sseth, and Sseth attempted to revoke it. Pil'it'ith devised a ritual of some sorts that "trapped" the power in an item, some kind of artifact. The item itself holds a fraction of Sseth's power. If recovered and "broken", the divine energy within would be released back into Sseth. This bolsters Sseth's power. Couple this with some kind of disruption to the ongoing ritual that binds Sseth, and suddenly, the big lug is awake and free. And angry.
#3 keveras Dec 24, 2008 10:15:37	The problem with this approach is that it would have to wait until my players got deep into epic levels. Pil'it'ith is CR 36 for Pete's sake, and is guarded by a fortress/ruin full of the most badass creatures in Faerunian history. Kindnapping him would be a bit ludicrous. Essentially, this whole idea is only in the mix because Pil'it'ith's sacrifice to Sseth being the thing that frees old snakey is an idea that I like. But its just not practical. Actually, his CR would be 27. CR 21 for the sarrukh was a typo, afaik. 12 should be correct.
#4 lord_karsus Dec 26, 2008 21:34:47	-I did not know that. That makes Sarrukh more palatable, in my opinion, then.
#5 umbralknight Dec 27, 2008 5:39:13	-A combination of all of them, then, partially: Pil'it'ith, a former Chosen of Sseth, lost his power when he abandoned Sseth, and Sseth attempted to revoke it. Pil'it'ith devised a ritual of some sorts that "trapped" the power in an item, some kind of artifact. The item itself holds a fraction of Sseth's power. If recovered and "broken", the divine energy within would be released back into Sseth. This bolsters Sseth's power. Couple this with some kind of disruption to the ongoing ritual that binds Sseth, and suddenly, the big lug is awake and free. And angry. Ah thank you that is most helpfull. Actually, his CR would be 27. CR 21 for the sarrukh was a typo, afaik. 12 should be correct. Hmm looking at the stats now, it does seem that way. Thanks for pointing it out. That means I can actually use Sarruhk in some encounters. Which I am now looking forward to, since it will be a first for me.
#6 quale1 Dec 27, 2008 14:22:31	the novel Vanity's Brood has some info on Ssseth's imprisonment the way I would do it, PCs could weaken Set's power, like finding and eliminating the cults, and they aren't that numerous, with the help of the church of Horus or perform some miracle that's in opposition to Set's portfolios so just weaken him a bit so the snake Sseth can pull his slippery head out of the shackles in Smargard
#7 lord_karsus Dec 27, 2008 16:09:46	-This is only tangentially related, but: Snakes shed their skin. Perhaps, in order to free Sseth, he needs to "die", so that he can be 'reborn' as X, much like Orcus did, when he came back as Tenebrous. The same snake, just in new skin.
#8 umbralknight Dec 28, 2008 5:23:26	the novel Vanity's Brood has some info on Ssseth's imprisonment the way I would do it, PCs could weaken Set's power, like finding and eliminating the cults, and they aren't that numerous, with the help of the church of Horus or perform some miracle that's in opposition to Set's portfolios so just weaken him a bit so the snake Sseth can pull his slippery head out of the shackles in Smargard A novel? Brilliant! That's exactly what I need. I had no idea it existed. Thanks mate. -This is only tangentially related, but: Snakes shed their skin. Perhaps, in order to free Sseth, he needs to "die", so that he can be 'reborn' as X, much like Orcus did, when he came back as Tenebrous. The same snake, just in new skin. That's what I have in mind actually. I gather that Sseth goes through these cycles. When he was Merrshaulk, he entered a period of hybernation and fell silent, and then manifested as Sseth. The Okoth betrayed Sseth because he entered a similiar period of hybernation, so it seems like the same thing was happening again. When we first started hearing of the 4e deities, I thought that Zehir would be the next incarnation of Merrshaulk/Sseth, and was dissapointed to see that he wasn't. As far as my campaign is concerned, I would like to end it with a battle against Sseth's new "skin", as manifested in an avatar.
#9 lord_karsus Dec 29, 2008 11:01:00	-You could always make Zehir Sseth's new "skin", being as that Zehir has absolutely nothing to do with anything.
#10 umbralknight Dec 29, 2008 16:22:29	The thought crossed my mind, but I'm told by one of my players that Storm of Zehir outlined Zehir as a separate entity. I could always rule 0 it, but I'm not particularly attached to the name/entity of Zehir in any way, so I'm just as well off using another name. As an aside, if anyone has played this "storm of zehir" game I would appreciate a plot summary and/or thoughts on the game from a lore perspcetive, on the off chance that it proves meaningful to me. I'll probably end up playing it eventually, but I don't see that happening for the immediate future.
#11 lord_karsus Dec 29, 2008 18:23:29	-If it helps you any, the Neverwinter Nights games are not canon, so there's nothing to even "Rule 0", since there's nothing to begin with.