Hello my fellow masters of the dungeons đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and was wondering if any of you could help.
My players are currently starting the final dungeon in our first campaign (wave echo cave, in a more cult horrory version of the lost mine of phandelver) and are trying to stop rhe black spider, a crazed cult leader from enacting an unholy ritual in service of the god of pain (a semi lovecraftian being).
My main idea is that the location of wave echo cave (a long lost magical forge) is a place where the boundaries between worlds are somewhat blurred and that the BBEG wants to access the realm of pain to talk to this god and try and reason with him (not a great plan for him) for power. And that when the Pcs attack him he completes the ritual and they fight there in an epic battle with lots of weird environmental factors and such. I was thinking they might catch a glimpse of the god and briefly speak to him before they escape to forshadow him as a future threat. ( PCs are level 4 btw).
What do you think? I'm really not sure how to execute this in a cool, scary way as we've been leading up to this for a long time?
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks so much to all those who respond.
A section of the Wave Echo Cave could have thin boundries with Gehenna , the plane of cruelty, pain, and volcanoes. Such crossing could become viable when a significant ammount of pain is sufferred in a short time during a specific ritual.
One of the weird environmental effect could be a Pain Echo (name link) that whenever one living creature suffer pain, everyone in a radius suffer a fragment of that pain in the form of psychic damage, for exemple whenever a creature takes damage, each creatures in a 30-foot radius must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. A target take 2d6 psychic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.
The Godess of Pain could be Loviatar the Maiden of Pain and the creature involve in the ritual and coming in the Cave could be one of her servant either a Barghests or a Yugoloth.
A section of the Wave Echo Cave could have thin boundries with Gehenna , the plane of cruelty, pain, and volcanoes. Such crossing could become viable when a significant ammount of pain is sufferred in a short time during a specific ritual.
One of the weird environmental effect could be a Pain Echo (name link) that whenever one living creature suffer pain, everyone in a radius suffer a fragment of that pain in the form of psychic damage, for exemple whenever a creature takes damage, each creatures in a 30-foot radius must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. A target take 2d6 psychic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.
The Godess of Pain could be Loviatar the Maiden of Pain and the creature involve in the ritual and coming in the Cave could be one of her servant either a Barghests or a Yugoloth.
Thanks so much. I'm definitely using that Pain Echo idea. I'm going to read about that goddess now.
Maybe the players are the ones to complete the ritual FOR the big bad, precisely by enacting a lot of pain on them. The ritual wouldn't have worked if the big bad just did it by themselves. But since the party arrived and have been fighting so many things and causing so much pain, THAT'S what summons the elder evil (or whatever you want your god/contact to be). That could be a fun subversion of the usual heroic tropes to fit the cult horror feel.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Maybe the players are the ones to complete the ritual FOR the big bad, precisely by enacting a lot of pain on them. The ritual wouldn't have worked if the big bad just did it by themselves. But since the party arrived and have been fighting so many things and causing so much pain, THAT'S what summons the elder evil (or whatever you want your god/contact to be). That could be a fun subversion of the usual heroic tropes to fit the cult horror feel.
This is such a great idea! Thanks so much.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Hello my fellow masters of the dungeons đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and was wondering if any of you could help.
My players are currently starting the final dungeon in our first campaign (wave echo cave, in a more cult horrory version of the lost mine of phandelver) and are trying to stop rhe black spider, a crazed cult leader from enacting an unholy ritual in service of the god of pain (a semi lovecraftian being).
My main idea is that the location of wave echo cave (a long lost magical forge) is a place where the boundaries between worlds are somewhat blurred and that the BBEG wants to access the realm of pain to talk to this god and try and reason with him (not a great plan for him) for power. And that when the Pcs attack him he completes the ritual and they fight there in an epic battle with lots of weird environmental factors and such. I was thinking they might catch a glimpse of the god and briefly speak to him before they escape to forshadow him as a future threat. ( PCs are level 4 btw).
What do you think? I'm really not sure how to execute this in a cool, scary way as we've been leading up to this for a long time?
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks so much to all those who respond.
A section of the Wave Echo Cave could have thin boundries with Gehenna , the plane of cruelty, pain, and volcanoes. Such crossing could become viable when a significant ammount of pain is sufferred in a short time during a specific ritual.
One of the weird environmental effect could be a Pain Echo (name link) that whenever one living creature suffer pain, everyone in a radius suffer a fragment of that pain in the form of psychic damage, for exemple whenever a creature takes damage, each creatures in a 30-foot radius must make a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw. A target take 2d6 psychic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.
The Godess of Pain could be Loviatar the Maiden of Pain and the creature involve in the ritual and coming in the Cave could be one of her servant either a Barghests or a Yugoloth.
Thanks so much. I'm definitely using that Pain Echo idea. I'm going to read about that goddess now.
Maybe the players are the ones to complete the ritual FOR the big bad, precisely by enacting a lot of pain on them. The ritual wouldn't have worked if the big bad just did it by themselves. But since the party arrived and have been fighting so many things and causing so much pain, THAT'S what summons the elder evil (or whatever you want your god/contact to be). That could be a fun subversion of the usual heroic tropes to fit the cult horror feel.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
This is such a great idea! Thanks so much.