My party has fought their way into an underwater temple and are about to enter the final room. This room contains the corpse of a long-forgotten sea god.
The lore of this tomb is that many eons ago, Umberlee slayed a Poseidon-like god and stole his portfolio, and then buried him in a temple and surrounded him with statues commemorating her conquest.
I do not know how this fits into official canon, and honestly it's fine if it doesn't. Mortal record keeping is very fickle.
I need whatever happens in this final room to be as interesting as possible. "You see a really big corpse holding a trident. What do you do?" isn't going to cut it.
The original plan was just a big fight with a bunch of different flavored water elementals, but that sucks and is boring. So I turn to you, the hive mind, to see if anyone has any clever ideas. Because I'm stuck.
A few notes: They already fought a Kraken They already fought an Aboleth I am good with it being a fight of some kind, but I need it to be more interesting than "here are the monsters... have at it"
Bonus Question:
The entire reason they are here is to recover "A holy weapon of extreme power", which is going to be Poseidon's Trident. Anyone have any ideas on what it should do?
If Umberlee slew Poseidon, why would she just leave the trident lying around for anyone to pick up? There should be more layers to the tomb than "it's just there". And what does it mean to slay a god in your world? Is the god dead forever? Or could they be resurrected?
Some options:
1) Umberlee has trapped the tomb so that nobody will ever know she isn't the rightful god of the sea. The room holds a huge corpse with the trident shoved through its chest. Touching or moving the trident triggers the trap - all the doors shut and seal with huge boulders, and currents start spontaneously occurring that try to slam the party into walls / columns / spikes around the room, maybe one or two walls start slowly closing in trying to crush the party to death, while a Programmed Illusion of Umberlee mocks and taunts them. However, the faint remaining spirit of Poseidon has caused the ambient sea life - crabs, sea slugs, fish - to secretly dig a tiny hidden escape route. If the party prays to Poseidon for help his trident animates and points the way to the escape route, alternatively they might notice the sea life in the room start heading towards the escape route or maybe find it themselves with a sufficiently high Investigation check. But Umberlee's currents will try to prevent them from making it through the escape route. (Naturally the tomb has anti-teleporation enchantments on it)
2) One or more clerics/cultists of Poseidon are in the tomb trying to resurrect him. They won't allow the party to take the trident, and (possibly) might try to sacrifice the party as part of the ritual to resurrect their god. You could then have it so that killing the cultists completes the ritual and the party has accidentally started a god-war between Poseidon and Umberlee which could be a whole thread / side quest of your campaign but Poseidon gifts them his trident (or a version of it) in thanks.
3) Poseidon isn't actually dead, instead he is chained up in the tomb with sea weed choking him and sea anemones stinging him. He has gone half-mad in his imprisonment and sees hallucinations of Umberlee taunting him and begs the party to use it to end his suffering. The trident in this case is on display in full view but out of reach of Poseidon, similar to #1 Umberlee has trapped the trident but with a more subtle effect - if touched it releases a wave that stuns everyone in the room, and releases a group of monsters (e.g. scaled up Chuul or some HB super poisonous jelly fish) into the room to attack them.
Any of these could be enhanced by making the statues come alive one by one and attack.
As stated above, this is the final room in a pretty elaborate dungeon that the crew has fought through. They needed to slay a Kraken just to get into the dungeon in the first place.
It's not just "lying around"
I had not considered resurrection. It would take a whole lot more effort than just "cast a spell" to bring him back. Honestly, if the party has interest in pursuing that endeavor, I'm all for it.
Option 1 is roughly the speed I am going for. I am unsure how to do that in a way that's fun and interesting, vs. just an elaborate trap encounter that will take a whole 5 minutes to actually play out while I describe things. I need to think on this a bit.
There is also potential in Option 3, though the idea of trapping a god in a room seems a bit hard to explain away. Again, need to think on this.
There is also potential in Option 3, though the idea of trapping a god in a room seems a bit hard to explain away.
No more than explaining how one god killed another god. It clearly shouldn't just be "a room" the corpse of a god just being in some random room in a dungeon also requires explanation. What is the narrative of the dungeon? Did Umberlee put the Kraken and Aboleth there in order to guard the corpse? or were they attracted by the lingering magic of the corpse/trident and took up residence there? Was this place a headquarters of a cult of Umberlee that created / protected the Kraken and Aboleth that since was destroyed / abandoned?
The corpse of a god should surely be in a massive vault with impregnable walls behind a giant adamantine door with a complex lock on it, and protected by the most powerful abjuration magic. Or it should be on display at the grandest of temples to Umberlee to inspire her followers. Unless Umberlee trusted the obscurity of the open ocean and just tossed the body away and it's latent magic caused the dungeon to grow around it.
As I recall Giants and Poseidon didn't get along to well - it would make sense from a lore point of view that each Giant race put a mighty warrior in stasis such that if anyone tried to resurrect Poseidon or steal his trident - the Giants would put a stop to it - I imagine 1 ea of cloud, fire, storm, stone with a beefed up hill giant would be a good challenge for the group.
If you think the 5 Giants aren't enough of a challenge you can give each one a Legendary skill ie firebolt for the fire giant that they can cast between the players turns just to add a level of constant dps to the encounter.
As for the Trident - here you go: (its a slightly modded version of Dekella, Bident of Thassa)
Poseidon's Trident
Weapon (trident), artifact (requires attunement)
Forged in the fiery heart of Mount Etna by the cyclopes and imbued with the raw power of the ocean, Poseidon's Trident is a weapon of unimaginable might. It commands the waves, unleashes storms, and shakes the very foundations of the earth. Only a hero of extraordinary strength and unwavering resolve can hope to wield this legendary weapon, for it carries the weight of the sea god's fury and the boundless depths of his dominion.
Sentience. Poseidon's Trident is a sentient chaotic good weapon with an Intelligence of 20, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 20. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120 feet. The weapon communicates telepathically with its wielder and can speak, read, and understand Aquan, Celestial, and Primordial.
Personality. Poseidon's Trident is a tempestuous and commanding weapon, reflecting the volatile nature of the sea god himself. It speaks with a voice like thunder, capable of calming storms or inciting them with equal ease. It yearns for action and adventure, urging its wielder to explore the vast oceans and defend the innocent from those who would exploit the seas. While it can be wrathful and unforgiving to those who disrespect the sea, it shows unwavering loyalty and guidance to those who prove worthy of its power.
Properties
+3 Trident: You have a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Ocean's Fury: When you hit with an attack using the trident, the target takes an extra 2d10 cold damage.
Shape the Seas: Once per day at dawn, you can use an action to cast the true polymorph spell on a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. The creature must have a swim speed, or the spell fails.
Ocean's Embrace: One time per day, you can use an action to cast the mass heal spell from the trident.
Destroying the Trident
Poseidon's Trident is an artifact and is nigh indestructible. Legends say that to even attempt its destruction, one would need to wrest it from Poseidon's grasp in the depths of his underwater palace, then drag it to the surface and expose it to the searing flames of a dragon's breath during the peak of a solar eclipse. Even then, its destruction is not assured, for the sea god himself may intervene to protect his most prized possession.
As for a magical trident you've also got the Artifact called Wave in the DMG that you could use.
As for a Poseidon-esque god, you could have a group (or should that be school?) of Kuo-Toa performing a ritual to create a new diety from the remains using their "God Maker" ability (see the Monster Manual for a rough description). The remains of Poseidon look like some gargantuan sized merfolk and the Koa Toa are using the Magical Trident as a focus to channel their devotion into the carcass. As the party enter the Koa Toa open a rift to the Elemental Plane of Water causing the chamber to fil with water at an alarming rate, picture the rifts effects as those of a Decanter of Endless Water with much higher DC to resist, this rift becomes a lair action on initiative counter 20 each turn and the party only have 5 turns before the chamber is filled completely so they have to effectively do a smash and grab to get the trident and get out or face drowning and each turn reduces their movement speed by 5ft unless the have a swimming speed.
You can then have the Koa Toa Archpriests summon in Watrer Elementals Myrmidons to slow them down or have arcane spell casters try to Banish or Planeshift the party into the Elemental Plane of Water or, if you feel a little spicy, you could have Hydroloth be in charge of theo Kuo-Toa. Hydroloths have a raft of spellcasting options as well as a feeblemind-esque ability and are renowned for finding lost things so that can explain why they are there.
Level 17 party. 4 members.
My party has fought their way into an underwater temple and are about to enter the final room. This room contains the corpse of a long-forgotten sea god.
The lore of this tomb is that many eons ago, Umberlee slayed a Poseidon-like god and stole his portfolio, and then buried him in a temple and surrounded him with statues commemorating her conquest.
I do not know how this fits into official canon, and honestly it's fine if it doesn't. Mortal record keeping is very fickle.
I need whatever happens in this final room to be as interesting as possible. "You see a really big corpse holding a trident. What do you do?" isn't going to cut it.
The original plan was just a big fight with a bunch of different flavored water elementals, but that sucks and is boring. So I turn to you, the hive mind, to see if anyone has any clever ideas. Because I'm stuck.
A few notes:
They already fought a Kraken
They already fought an Aboleth
I am good with it being a fight of some kind, but I need it to be more interesting than "here are the monsters... have at it"
Bonus Question:
The entire reason they are here is to recover "A holy weapon of extreme power", which is going to be Poseidon's Trident. Anyone have any ideas on what it should do?
If Umberlee slew Poseidon, why would she just leave the trident lying around for anyone to pick up? There should be more layers to the tomb than "it's just there". And what does it mean to slay a god in your world? Is the god dead forever? Or could they be resurrected?
Some options:
1) Umberlee has trapped the tomb so that nobody will ever know she isn't the rightful god of the sea. The room holds a huge corpse with the trident shoved through its chest. Touching or moving the trident triggers the trap - all the doors shut and seal with huge boulders, and currents start spontaneously occurring that try to slam the party into walls / columns / spikes around the room, maybe one or two walls start slowly closing in trying to crush the party to death, while a Programmed Illusion of Umberlee mocks and taunts them. However, the faint remaining spirit of Poseidon has caused the ambient sea life - crabs, sea slugs, fish - to secretly dig a tiny hidden escape route. If the party prays to Poseidon for help his trident animates and points the way to the escape route, alternatively they might notice the sea life in the room start heading towards the escape route or maybe find it themselves with a sufficiently high Investigation check. But Umberlee's currents will try to prevent them from making it through the escape route. (Naturally the tomb has anti-teleporation enchantments on it)
2) One or more clerics/cultists of Poseidon are in the tomb trying to resurrect him. They won't allow the party to take the trident, and (possibly) might try to sacrifice the party as part of the ritual to resurrect their god. You could then have it so that killing the cultists completes the ritual and the party has accidentally started a god-war between Poseidon and Umberlee which could be a whole thread / side quest of your campaign but Poseidon gifts them his trident (or a version of it) in thanks.
3) Poseidon isn't actually dead, instead he is chained up in the tomb with sea weed choking him and sea anemones stinging him. He has gone half-mad in his imprisonment and sees hallucinations of Umberlee taunting him and begs the party to use it to end his suffering. The trident in this case is on display in full view but out of reach of Poseidon, similar to #1 Umberlee has trapped the trident but with a more subtle effect - if touched it releases a wave that stuns everyone in the room, and releases a group of monsters (e.g. scaled up Chuul or some HB super poisonous jelly fish) into the room to attack them.
Any of these could be enhanced by making the statues come alive one by one and attack.
As stated above, this is the final room in a pretty elaborate dungeon that the crew has fought through. They needed to slay a Kraken just to get into the dungeon in the first place.
It's not just "lying around"
I had not considered resurrection. It would take a whole lot more effort than just "cast a spell" to bring him back. Honestly, if the party has interest in pursuing that endeavor, I'm all for it.
Option 1 is roughly the speed I am going for. I am unsure how to do that in a way that's fun and interesting, vs. just an elaborate trap encounter that will take a whole 5 minutes to actually play out while I describe things. I need to think on this a bit.
There is also potential in Option 3, though the idea of trapping a god in a room seems a bit hard to explain away. Again, need to think on this.
No more than explaining how one god killed another god. It clearly shouldn't just be "a room" the corpse of a god just being in some random room in a dungeon also requires explanation. What is the narrative of the dungeon? Did Umberlee put the Kraken and Aboleth there in order to guard the corpse? or were they attracted by the lingering magic of the corpse/trident and took up residence there? Was this place a headquarters of a cult of Umberlee that created / protected the Kraken and Aboleth that since was destroyed / abandoned?
The corpse of a god should surely be in a massive vault with impregnable walls behind a giant adamantine door with a complex lock on it, and protected by the most powerful abjuration magic. Or it should be on display at the grandest of temples to Umberlee to inspire her followers. Unless Umberlee trusted the obscurity of the open ocean and just tossed the body away and it's latent magic caused the dungeon to grow around it.
As I recall Giants and Poseidon didn't get along to well - it would make sense from a lore point of view that each Giant race put a mighty warrior in stasis such that if anyone tried to resurrect Poseidon or steal his trident - the Giants would put a stop to it - I imagine 1 ea of cloud, fire, storm, stone with a beefed up hill giant would be a good challenge for the group.
If you think the 5 Giants aren't enough of a challenge you can give each one a Legendary skill ie firebolt for the fire giant that they can cast between the players turns just to add a level of constant dps to the encounter.
As for the Trident - here you go: (its a slightly modded version of Dekella, Bident of Thassa)
Poseidon's Trident
Weapon (trident), artifact (requires attunement)
Forged in the fiery heart of Mount Etna by the cyclopes and imbued with the raw power of the ocean, Poseidon's Trident is a weapon of unimaginable might. It commands the waves, unleashes storms, and shakes the very foundations of the earth. Only a hero of extraordinary strength and unwavering resolve can hope to wield this legendary weapon, for it carries the weight of the sea god's fury and the boundless depths of his dominion.
Sentience. Poseidon's Trident is a sentient chaotic good weapon with an Intelligence of 20, a Wisdom of 15, and a Charisma of 20. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 120 feet. The weapon communicates telepathically with its wielder and can speak, read, and understand Aquan, Celestial, and Primordial.
Personality. Poseidon's Trident is a tempestuous and commanding weapon, reflecting the volatile nature of the sea god himself. It speaks with a voice like thunder, capable of calming storms or inciting them with equal ease. It yearns for action and adventure, urging its wielder to explore the vast oceans and defend the innocent from those who would exploit the seas. While it can be wrathful and unforgiving to those who disrespect the sea, it shows unwavering loyalty and guidance to those who prove worthy of its power.
Properties
Destroying the Trident
Poseidon's Trident is an artifact and is nigh indestructible. Legends say that to even attempt its destruction, one would need to wrest it from Poseidon's grasp in the depths of his underwater palace, then drag it to the surface and expose it to the searing flames of a dragon's breath during the peak of a solar eclipse. Even then, its destruction is not assured, for the sea god himself may intervene to protect his most prized possession.
As for a magical trident you've also got the Artifact called Wave in the DMG that you could use.
As for a Poseidon-esque god, you could have a group (or should that be school?) of Kuo-Toa performing a ritual to create a new diety from the remains using their "God Maker" ability (see the Monster Manual for a rough description). The remains of Poseidon look like some gargantuan sized merfolk and the Koa Toa are using the Magical Trident as a focus to channel their devotion into the carcass. As the party enter the Koa Toa open a rift to the Elemental Plane of Water causing the chamber to fil with water at an alarming rate, picture the rifts effects as those of a Decanter of Endless Water with much higher DC to resist, this rift becomes a lair action on initiative counter 20 each turn and the party only have 5 turns before the chamber is filled completely so they have to effectively do a smash and grab to get the trident and get out or face drowning and each turn reduces their movement speed by 5ft unless the have a swimming speed.
You can then have the Koa Toa Archpriests summon in Watrer Elementals Myrmidons to slow them down or have arcane spell casters try to Banish or Planeshift the party into the Elemental Plane of Water or, if you feel a little spicy, you could have Hydroloth be in charge of theo Kuo-Toa. Hydroloths have a raft of spellcasting options as well as a feeblemind-esque ability and are renowned for finding lost things so that can explain why they are there.