Building a cult to the Chained God. - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Building a cult to the Chained God.

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
gufnork
Jul 04, 2008 20:48:46 I think you can do something great with this god, I really like that he's not mentioned in the PHB. I could use some inspiration though, what do you think his cult would look like? My campaign will probably center around him and trying to prevent his release (or accidentally causing it).

My current idea is to make a triumvirate of Chaotic Evil gods and let him be imprisoned in the Feywilds. That way I could have orcs/goblins do their biddings in the heroic tier and drow in the paragon tier. I've already forbidden my players to play Eladrin (they don't make sense as a starting race) and the elves are entirely cut off from the feywilds. This means they know very little about it.

I could also let him play a very hidden role letting them do whatever, but drop some hints here and there. That way I'd only need a few encounters where his followers are involved, but I need ideas on what creatures you think suits him. Demons of course, but they're mostly high level, except for the brainless ones and they don't fit the criteria anyway. Angels have the same problem.

Let's brainstorm.
#2
gufnork
Jul 04, 2008 21:48:57 I really like the idea that he accidentally created the abyss when fighting the primordials, with the unjust imprisonment being the cause of his madness. It'd still mean the end of the world or some such if he's released, but it's the other gods fault in a way.

Not such a fan of having him imprisoned in the Abyss, having them wade their way there through a horde of demons sounds rather uninteresting.

As for them having their real shrines underneath the temples of other gods sounds like a good idea for one place, but not as a common occurance. Would get dull quite quickly.
#3
eldritch_lord
Jul 06, 2008 9:45:37
As for them having their real shrines underneath the temples of other gods sounds like a good idea for one place, but not as a common occurance. Would get dull quite quickly.

Not necessarily; you could make that a deliberate plot point. It can get dull really quickly as the PCs keep finding these shrines hidden under the temples of (for example) Pelor, kept secret from the clerics a few feet above their heads. Until, that is, they realize that they aren't secret at all, but rather endorsed by those same clerics of Pelor. Conspiracy abounds....
#4
drbeard
Jul 07, 2008 14:48:17 My players don't even know I'm using You Know Who yet.

Half the fun of the guy is that he's a big secret, some nightmarish thing for your players to discover. Consider having his minions be hidden within cults of other wicked gods or demon princes, as a thought, slowly and subtly moving the forces of corruption in the world, manipulating the master manipulators, all towards that nihilistic ultimate goal of waking their patron back up...

I just like the irony of the fact that these guys specialize in infiltrating groups that would normally be the masterminds; instead of going with the old, 'the church worships a secretly wicked god!' saw, you have agents of a tyrannical deity who are being bamboozled by something worse. As good a reaction you get from the forces of good getting shocked, you almost always get a better one from revealing that even the villains were being screwed with, in my experience.
#5
ramses_iii
Jul 08, 2008 18:36:16 If you want to see how the Chained God (a.k.a. Tharizdun) has been used previously, pick up The Temple of Elemental Evil or Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. These adventures are centered around a stronghold of cultists who seek to release the Chained God from his bonds. He has a lot of followers that are monsters, particularly of the elemental variety, though there are humans among the cultists at least in Return (not sure about the original ToEE though).
#6
dirtyfrank
Jul 08, 2008 20:30:03 The chained God doesn't care about his followers and doesn't speak to them. It would be easy to assume that his followers are a bit mad and just cause destruction and terror in the world. so going with the cult near or in another religious organization, you could decide that members of the chained gods cult are running cults for other gods (in secret).

You could decide to have your group fight against followers of Orcus, Zehir, or Asmodeus during the heroic tier and at about around level 9 - 10 they can kill a cult leader and find a holy symbol of an unknown deity on the cult leader. At this point the group is ready to fight demons once they have done a little investigating into the holy symbol.

Demons may not be the best creatures for the chained god because he had abandoned the demons. He figures that they are trouble then they are worth and now only seeks to be released. As for a race of followers you could always create a race of humans that have been warped and corrupted by the god. the raven queen has her race the shadar-kai so why can't the chained god.

It may be best to have the followers of the chained god be enemies to everybody. with the suggestion i gave above you could run with that and maybe have one of the affected cults of an evil god work together with the heroes to stomp out the cults of the chained god. Remember that his powers are unknown, his release could threaten to supplant one or more deities so give him any portfolio that would work for your campaign
#7
jimb
Jul 08, 2008 23:48:29
If you want to see how the Chained God (a.k.a. Tharizdun) has been used previously, pick up The Temple of Elemental Evil or Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. These adventures are centered around a stronghold of cultists who seek to release the Chained God from his bonds. He has a lot of followers that are monsters, particularly of the elemental variety, though there are humans among the cultists at least in Return (not sure about the original ToEE though).

The original ToEE isn't about Tharizdun (though this was retconned by the sequel), but Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is the canonical Tharizdun adventure. It's a 3rd-edition mega-adventure (basically a whole campaign) about fighting the cult of Tharizdun.

The other famous Tharizdun adventure is a 1st-edition Gary Gygax adventure called "The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun".
#8
eldritch_lord
Jul 09, 2008 8:49:28
Demons may not be the best creatures for the chained god because he had abandoned the demons. He figures that they are trouble then they are worth and now only seeks to be released. As for a race of followers you could always create a race of humans that have been warped and corrupted by the god. the raven queen has her race the shadar-kai so why can't the chained god.

I'd say have a race of followers that he uses most often, and then have the demons be the expendable rank-and-file folks because they're convenient. There's an artifact that might help release him? Send a few bazillion demons to grab it; no one cares cares if most of them die, as long as the one with the artifact makes it back. He doesn't trust the demons, but as long as they're there, they can work for him (and if they all die in the process, so much the better).
#9
gufnork
Jul 09, 2008 11:08:29 I'm currently leaning towards having them as infiltrators in various camps, the story being that he's now awake enough to corrupt people to do his bidding and the most useful and easily corruptable are those with power. This way I can throw out hints no matter what they do.

Right now my idea is to have the players living in a city that's surrounded by wilderness with no contact of the outside world. Underneath this city Tharizdun sleeps. As the players starts exploring their surroundings out of necessity (in a desperate attempt to find a new iron vein the dwarves of the city dug too deep and were forced to barricade the mines, their protecting barriers are losing strength and food is becoming scarce). At some point they'll discover there's a bigger world and they're a remnant of a prison colony that was created when they imprisoned Tharizdun (hey, we're going to seal this part anyway, why not make it useful). So think of the characters as Aussies... They will be hunted by followers of both good end evil gods (there will be a prophecy that says that when someone escapes the prison the world will end, the prohpecy really says the characters will save the world but the followers of Tharizdun will have corrupted it's meaning). I think there will be three former empires they will have to travel to during this, they will start in a former dragonborn empire (since there are no dragonborn in the city), then they will have to visit the former Tiefling and Human empires. They will also have to visit the Feywilds (Eladrin are NOT playable characters, I see no reason why they should be other than "we need a mage race").

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 gufnork Jul 04, 2008 20:48:46	I think you can do something great with this god, I really like that he's not mentioned in the PHB. I could use some inspiration though, what do you think his cult would look like? My campaign will probably center around him and trying to prevent his release (or accidentally causing it). My current idea is to make a triumvirate of Chaotic Evil gods and let him be imprisoned in the Feywilds. That way I could have orcs/goblins do their biddings in the heroic tier and drow in the paragon tier. I've already forbidden my players to play Eladrin (they don't make sense as a starting race) and the elves are entirely cut off from the feywilds. This means they know very little about it. I could also let him play a very hidden role letting them do whatever, but drop some hints here and there. That way I'd only need a few encounters where his followers are involved, but I need ideas on what creatures you think suits him. Demons of course, but they're mostly high level, except for the brainless ones and they don't fit the criteria anyway. Angels have the same problem. Let's brainstorm.
#2 gufnork Jul 04, 2008 21:48:57	I really like the idea that he accidentally created the abyss when fighting the primordials, with the unjust imprisonment being the cause of his madness. It'd still mean the end of the world or some such if he's released, but it's the other gods fault in a way. Not such a fan of having him imprisoned in the Abyss, having them wade their way there through a horde of demons sounds rather uninteresting. As for them having their real shrines underneath the temples of other gods sounds like a good idea for one place, but not as a common occurance. Would get dull quite quickly.
#3 eldritch_lord Jul 06, 2008 9:45:37	As for them having their real shrines underneath the temples of other gods sounds like a good idea for one place, but not as a common occurance. Would get dull quite quickly. Not necessarily; you could make that a deliberate plot point. It can get dull really quickly as the PCs keep finding these shrines hidden under the temples of (for example) Pelor, kept secret from the clerics a few feet above their heads. Until, that is, they realize that they aren't secret at all, but rather endorsed by those same clerics of Pelor. Conspiracy abounds....
#4 drbeard Jul 07, 2008 14:48:17	My players don't even know I'm using You Know Who yet. Half the fun of the guy is that he's a big secret, some nightmarish thing for your players to discover. Consider having his minions be hidden within cults of other wicked gods or demon princes, as a thought, slowly and subtly moving the forces of corruption in the world, manipulating the master manipulators, all towards that nihilistic ultimate goal of waking their patron back up... I just like the irony of the fact that these guys specialize in infiltrating groups that would normally be the masterminds; instead of going with the old, 'the church worships a secretly wicked god!' saw, you have agents of a tyrannical deity who are being bamboozled by something worse. As good a reaction you get from the forces of good getting shocked, you almost always get a better one from revealing that even the villains were being screwed with, in my experience.
#5 ramses_iii Jul 08, 2008 18:36:16	If you want to see how the Chained God (a.k.a. Tharizdun) has been used previously, pick up The Temple of Elemental Evil or Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. These adventures are centered around a stronghold of cultists who seek to release the Chained God from his bonds. He has a lot of followers that are monsters, particularly of the elemental variety, though there are humans among the cultists at least in Return (not sure about the original ToEE though).
#6 dirtyfrank Jul 08, 2008 20:30:03	The chained God doesn't care about his followers and doesn't speak to them. It would be easy to assume that his followers are a bit mad and just cause destruction and terror in the world. so going with the cult near or in another religious organization, you could decide that members of the chained gods cult are running cults for other gods (in secret). You could decide to have your group fight against followers of Orcus, Zehir, or Asmodeus during the heroic tier and at about around level 9 - 10 they can kill a cult leader and find a holy symbol of an unknown deity on the cult leader. At this point the group is ready to fight demons once they have done a little investigating into the holy symbol. Demons may not be the best creatures for the chained god because he had abandoned the demons. He figures that they are trouble then they are worth and now only seeks to be released. As for a race of followers you could always create a race of humans that have been warped and corrupted by the god. the raven queen has her race the shadar-kai so why can't the chained god. It may be best to have the followers of the chained god be enemies to everybody. with the suggestion i gave above you could run with that and maybe have one of the affected cults of an evil god work together with the heroes to stomp out the cults of the chained god. Remember that his powers are unknown, his release could threaten to supplant one or more deities so give him any portfolio that would work for your campaign
#7 jimb Jul 08, 2008 23:48:29	If you want to see how the Chained God (a.k.a. Tharizdun) has been used previously, pick up The Temple of Elemental Evil or Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. These adventures are centered around a stronghold of cultists who seek to release the Chained God from his bonds. He has a lot of followers that are monsters, particularly of the elemental variety, though there are humans among the cultists at least in Return (not sure about the original ToEE though). The original ToEE isn't about Tharizdun (though this was retconned by the sequel), but Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil is the canonical Tharizdun adventure. It's a 3rd-edition mega-adventure (basically a whole campaign) about fighting the cult of Tharizdun. The other famous Tharizdun adventure is a 1st-edition Gary Gygax adventure called "The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun".
#8 eldritch_lord Jul 09, 2008 8:49:28	Demons may not be the best creatures for the chained god because he had abandoned the demons. He figures that they are trouble then they are worth and now only seeks to be released. As for a race of followers you could always create a race of humans that have been warped and corrupted by the god. the raven queen has her race the shadar-kai so why can't the chained god. I'd say have a race of followers that he uses most often, and then have the demons be the expendable rank-and-file folks because they're convenient. There's an artifact that might help release him? Send a few bazillion demons to grab it; no one cares cares if most of them die, as long as the one with the artifact makes it back. He doesn't trust the demons, but as long as they're there, they can work for him (and if they all die in the process, so much the better).
#9 gufnork Jul 09, 2008 11:08:29	I'm currently leaning towards having them as infiltrators in various camps, the story being that he's now awake enough to corrupt people to do his bidding and the most useful and easily corruptable are those with power. This way I can throw out hints no matter what they do. Right now my idea is to have the players living in a city that's surrounded by wilderness with no contact of the outside world. Underneath this city Tharizdun sleeps. As the players starts exploring their surroundings out of necessity (in a desperate attempt to find a new iron vein the dwarves of the city dug too deep and were forced to barricade the mines, their protecting barriers are losing strength and food is becoming scarce). At some point they'll discover there's a bigger world and they're a remnant of a prison colony that was created when they imprisoned Tharizdun (hey, we're going to seal this part anyway, why not make it useful). So think of the characters as Aussies... They will be hunted by followers of both good end evil gods (there will be a prophecy that says that when someone escapes the prison the world will end, the prohpecy really says the characters will save the world but the followers of Tharizdun will have corrupted it's meaning). I think there will be three former empires they will have to travel to during this, they will start in a former dragonborn empire (since there are no dragonborn in the city), then they will have to visit the former Tiefling and Human empires. They will also have to visit the Feywilds (Eladrin are NOT playable characters, I see no reason why they should be other than "we need a mage race").