So I'm writing a campaign (my first) but could do with some advice re the storyline. The basic premise is that the 9 archdevils have united and are using cults on the mortal plane to conduct some sort of ritual to break through, with the aim of a mass harvest of souls to increase their armies in the blood war. I'm running the Dragonheist campaign as a prelude using the Cassalanters as villains and then planning to adapt it so that their actions are linked to the wider plot.
I was thinking of having 9 cults (one per lord of the 9 hells) with the 9th being lead by a modified Cambion who is the spawn of Asmodeus and who will serve as the BBEG. Each cult will be composed of a different group depending on the niche of the archdevil it serves i.e. a mind flayer leading the cult of disputer. I'm planning to have several arcs where the actions of the cults almost appear as side quests before later on emerging as the major threat. Over the course of the campaign the players encounter the first few cults without knowing how they're linked and through their actions find out pieces of information that will eventually lead them to the place the ritual is to be conducted where they can disrupt it by fighting the Cambion and its minions. I'm mostly looking for advice on how best to write the mechanics of the ritual and explain the actions of the cult. Maybe each cult has a specific task to carry out to allow the ritual to take place, i.e. obtaining a devil talisman or kidnapping an archmage with a particularly powerful soul to use as a sacrifice? I was thinking that the characters could maybe hear about these actions without directly having the opportunity to thwart them so as to ensure that they do get to the ritual and prevent it in the nick of time rather than being able to steal a required item and stopping the ritual dead early on. Some advice on how to deal with this would be appreciated. I was leaning towards maybe having each cult protecting some items that the characters could maybe combine to use to their advantage in the final battle etc. Any suggestions for what this item(s) could be or how best to optimise the writing and adventure itself i.e ideas for each cult or any ideas for devilish lore that I could incorporate would be really helpful. Cheers
Hmm I would use some sort of Mcguffins that open the portals . Also I have to point out in 5e Asmodaeus is a God having a God on the material plane would attract attention from other Gods and also devils can't simply take souls they need to make deals for them there's also all kinds of rules in different relgions even if they do come through they cant simply just take souls how do you plan to get around that for the story?
So I'm writing a campaign (my first) but could do with some advice re the storyline. The basic premise is that the 9 archdevils have united and are using cults on the mortal plane to conduct some sort of ritual to break through, with the aim of a mass harvest of souls to increase their armies in the blood war. I'm running the Dragonheist campaign as a prelude using the Cassalanters as villains and then planning to adapt it so that their actions are linked to the wider plot.
I was thinking of having 9 cults (one per lord of the 9 hells) with the 9th being lead by a modified Cambion who is the spawn of Asmodeus and who will serve as the BBEG. Each cult will be composed of a different group depending on the niche of the archdevil it serves i.e. a mind flayer leading the cult of disputer. I'm planning to have several arcs where the actions of the cults almost appear as side quests before later on emerging as the major threat. Over the course of the campaign the players encounter the first few cults without knowing how they're linked and through their actions find out pieces of information that will eventually lead them to the place the ritual is to be conducted where they can disrupt it by fighting the Cambion and its minions. I'm mostly looking for advice on how best to write the mechanics of the ritual and explain the actions of the cult. Maybe each cult has a specific task to carry out to allow the ritual to take place, i.e. obtaining a devil talisman or kidnapping an archmage with a particularly powerful soul to use as a sacrifice? I was thinking that the characters could maybe hear about these actions without directly having the opportunity to thwart them so as to ensure that they do get to the ritual and prevent it in the nick of time rather than being able to steal a required item and stopping the ritual dead early on. Some advice on how to deal with this would be appreciated. I was leaning towards maybe having each cult protecting some items that the characters could maybe combine to use to their advantage in the final battle etc. Any suggestions for what this item(s) could be or how best to optimise the writing and adventure itself i.e ideas for each cult or any ideas for devilish lore that I could incorporate would be really helpful.
I also have other questions levistus is in cased in ice how is he coming if all the devils are not on Bator who's stopping demons coming through the abyass portal . Is Zarial or Bel going to stay behind? I know I sound nit picky but your players are going to ask allot more questions than me if there anything like mine .
As for the lore, you are free to play around with the details as needed for your world. Others have brought up good questions, and your players might have the same. So I would say read up on the devils and have answers prepared. Think of how Levistus escaped or who is pulling strings for that cult. Think of why the gods aren't involved. Or maybe they are and help the heroes in their own ways.
If you have 9 different cults, each with their own tasks, your players might get frustrated to find out they were always too late to be involved in any of them. If they only hear about them, then you might be missing some opportunities for some good adventures. Nine different tasks is an awesome amount of variety to play with. I might be tempted to slowly build the threat and pull the characters into it, having each task offer a new style of quest.
Maybe the first couple of cults are 100% successful, before the characters catch on to what is happening. Using your examples, maybe the characters see them get away with the first talisman as part of their early adventure, but don't know what it means yet. Maybe the characters know the wizard that one cult plans to kidnap. The wizard is a friendly NPC and sends them on some quests. Maybe she has suspicions on what is happening but isn't ready to tell the PCs everything yet. Then she sends them an urgent Sending spell telling them to come to her tower right away She had important information for them. When they arrive, the tower explodes and they have to help the locals survive the destruction. When they finally get to search it, the wizard is gone. The only clues point towards a cult.
By the time you give the PCs everything they need to know that the cults have planned, they are halfway done. Now the PCs can make a mad dash to try to steal one of the items a cult needs. They can try to interrupt their plans. They can search for an ancient shrine in desolate mountains to uncover a secret to the next task. They can try to stop a minor ritual in time by finding the location on an old map inscribed on a tomb. Let them be proactive at this point. Let them succeed at some of their plans and just barely fail at others. Maybe the gods give them missions too, artifacts to find to help them defeat the evil.
Of course you still want the BBEG to think the ritual can succeed. So it needs backup plans. Maybe the PCs free the wizard, but any powerful soul will do when it comes down to it. And guess who is really powerful by now? All of the player characters in the room. Maybe the item they stole was cursed and they have to bring it with them. Because it's the only thing that can truly kill the BBEG. So they take it right into enemy territory but have to make sure he doesn't get his hands on it (like Frodo and the ring.) The trick is not to make it totally frustrating for the PCs. Being fooled over and over isn't fun. Succeeding, but with a catch, can be very fun if done right.
So just to clear a few things up. The idea isn't for all the devil lords to move across to the material plane but rather to add it their domains. I was thinking maybe that the motivation of the Cambion would be that if they saw this plan through that they would be installed as lord of the new tenth circle, or something along those lines. I might just use the DM's prerogative to say that if the mortal plane is brought under the full influence of Asmodeous that the devils would no longer have to make deals for souls but rather they could collect souls by default. Not necessarily by killing mortals but by essentially using the mortal plane as a soul farm where they can breed and harvest souls to increase their armies.
I was thinking about having the black staff kidnapped. This character could then be rescued but maybe the devils keep the black staff itself containing the souls of the most powerful wizards from the last few hundred years which could be used to feed the portal.
I'm waiting for the players to make their characters at the moment. One of them at least intends to be a cleric so I was planning on having them receive some form of divine intervention at some point depending on which deity suits them best to bring the gods into it somewhat.
I might change it slightly so that whilst the characters may seem to defeat the cults at first it will turn out that the cults have already achieved their aims. I.e one member managed to escape with the talisman as the heroes fight the other cultists in the dungeon etc. That way the heroes see success but maybe aren't as successful as they feel at the time.
Thanks for the advice so far :)
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So I'm writing a campaign (my first) but could do with some advice re the storyline. The basic premise is that the 9 archdevils have united and are using cults on the mortal plane to conduct some sort of ritual to break through, with the aim of a mass harvest of souls to increase their armies in the blood war. I'm running the Dragonheist campaign as a prelude using the Cassalanters as villains and then planning to adapt it so that their actions are linked to the wider plot.
I was thinking of having 9 cults (one per lord of the 9 hells) with the 9th being lead by a modified Cambion who is the spawn of Asmodeus and who will serve as the BBEG. Each cult will be composed of a different group depending on the niche of the archdevil it serves i.e. a mind flayer leading the cult of disputer. I'm planning to have several arcs where the actions of the cults almost appear as side quests before later on emerging as the major threat. Over the course of the campaign the players encounter the first few cults without knowing how they're linked and through their actions find out pieces of information that will eventually lead them to the place the ritual is to be conducted where they can disrupt it by fighting the Cambion and its minions. I'm mostly looking for advice on how best to write the mechanics of the ritual and explain the actions of the cult. Maybe each cult has a specific task to carry out to allow the ritual to take place, i.e. obtaining a devil talisman or kidnapping an archmage with a particularly powerful soul to use as a sacrifice? I was thinking that the characters could maybe hear about these actions without directly having the opportunity to thwart them so as to ensure that they do get to the ritual and prevent it in the nick of time rather than being able to steal a required item and stopping the ritual dead early on. Some advice on how to deal with this would be appreciated. I was leaning towards maybe having each cult protecting some items that the characters could maybe combine to use to their advantage in the final battle etc. Any suggestions for what this item(s) could be or how best to optimise the writing and adventure itself i.e ideas for each cult or any ideas for devilish lore that I could incorporate would be really helpful. Cheers
Hmm I would use some sort of Mcguffins that open the portals . Also I have to point out in 5e Asmodaeus is a God having a God on the material plane would attract attention from other Gods and also devils can't simply take souls they need to make deals for them there's also all kinds of rules in different relgions even if they do come through they cant simply just take souls how do you plan to get around that for the story?
I also have other questions levistus is in cased in ice how is he coming if all the devils are not on Bator who's stopping demons coming through the abyass portal . Is Zarial or Bel going to stay behind? I know I sound nit picky but your players are going to ask allot more questions than me if there anything like mine .
It sounds like a fun campaign!
As for the lore, you are free to play around with the details as needed for your world. Others have brought up good questions, and your players might have the same. So I would say read up on the devils and have answers prepared. Think of how Levistus escaped or who is pulling strings for that cult. Think of why the gods aren't involved. Or maybe they are and help the heroes in their own ways.
If you have 9 different cults, each with their own tasks, your players might get frustrated to find out they were always too late to be involved in any of them. If they only hear about them, then you might be missing some opportunities for some good adventures. Nine different tasks is an awesome amount of variety to play with. I might be tempted to slowly build the threat and pull the characters into it, having each task offer a new style of quest.
Maybe the first couple of cults are 100% successful, before the characters catch on to what is happening. Using your examples, maybe the characters see them get away with the first talisman as part of their early adventure, but don't know what it means yet. Maybe the characters know the wizard that one cult plans to kidnap. The wizard is a friendly NPC and sends them on some quests. Maybe she has suspicions on what is happening but isn't ready to tell the PCs everything yet. Then she sends them an urgent Sending spell telling them to come to her tower right away She had important information for them. When they arrive, the tower explodes and they have to help the locals survive the destruction. When they finally get to search it, the wizard is gone. The only clues point towards a cult.
By the time you give the PCs everything they need to know that the cults have planned, they are halfway done. Now the PCs can make a mad dash to try to steal one of the items a cult needs. They can try to interrupt their plans. They can search for an ancient shrine in desolate mountains to uncover a secret to the next task. They can try to stop a minor ritual in time by finding the location on an old map inscribed on a tomb. Let them be proactive at this point. Let them succeed at some of their plans and just barely fail at others. Maybe the gods give them missions too, artifacts to find to help them defeat the evil.
Of course you still want the BBEG to think the ritual can succeed. So it needs backup plans. Maybe the PCs free the wizard, but any powerful soul will do when it comes down to it. And guess who is really powerful by now? All of the player characters in the room. Maybe the item they stole was cursed and they have to bring it with them. Because it's the only thing that can truly kill the BBEG. So they take it right into enemy territory but have to make sure he doesn't get his hands on it (like Frodo and the ring.) The trick is not to make it totally frustrating for the PCs. Being fooled over and over isn't fun. Succeeding, but with a catch, can be very fun if done right.
Hope that inspires some ideas, and good luck!
So just to clear a few things up. The idea isn't for all the devil lords to move across to the material plane but rather to add it their domains. I was thinking maybe that the motivation of the Cambion would be that if they saw this plan through that they would be installed as lord of the new tenth circle, or something along those lines. I might just use the DM's prerogative to say that if the mortal plane is brought under the full influence of Asmodeous that the devils would no longer have to make deals for souls but rather they could collect souls by default. Not necessarily by killing mortals but by essentially using the mortal plane as a soul farm where they can breed and harvest souls to increase their armies.
I was thinking about having the black staff kidnapped. This character could then be rescued but maybe the devils keep the black staff itself containing the souls of the most powerful wizards from the last few hundred years which could be used to feed the portal.
I'm waiting for the players to make their characters at the moment. One of them at least intends to be a cleric so I was planning on having them receive some form of divine intervention at some point depending on which deity suits them best to bring the gods into it somewhat.
I might change it slightly so that whilst the characters may seem to defeat the cults at first it will turn out that the cults have already achieved their aims. I.e one member managed to escape with the talisman as the heroes fight the other cultists in the dungeon etc. That way the heroes see success but maybe aren't as successful as they feel at the time.
Thanks for the advice so far :)