Re: MotM: Monolythe

--- Dreamer <dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk> wrote:
> Interesting world...
> 
> I note that there are no vampires and mummies
> mentioned, the first presumably because it preys on
> the (unknowing) living, something this world is
> short of,

Correct.  Vampires would starve, although there might
be one or two at one of the ports, for short-term
stays.


> and the second because the culture that makes them
> is not native on this world.

There could be mummies, although more likely they'd be
minion-type mummies instead of really powerful ones
(those would become Sons instead, which has more perks
than being a rotting corpse).


> On the subject of making undead, a (rough)
> description of the process that makes a "Son of
> Acererak" either from a living creature, or from a
> liche, and whether they have phylactries
> giving them that vulnerability of liches, would be
> interesting.

I've (barely) started on the Son's MM-type writeup,
but I envision them being pretty tough cookies ;) 
Actually, I wouldn't mind a little help with the
stats.  


> You say:
> 
> "When a being dies in one of these tombs, his soul
> journeys not
> to an Outer Plane, but is instead sent to Monolythe,
> flowing from
> one of the springs that feed the Daughters of Styx."
> 
> The means by which such a soul trap, then soul
> transportation across multiple crystal spheres
> (Interuniversal Teleport?), is made to work would be
> of interest.

That basically how I envisioned it working, even if I
didn't have the mechanics down.


> 
> Presumably it involves mightly rituals on the source
> pyramids, maybe combining arcane and divine magic? 
> Maybe all pyramids must have a (hidden) pool of
> water (block of ice?) from the Daughters
> of Styx in their basement?  What form are the
> 'souls' in that are found in the Daughters of Styx? 
> Is it possible that they are not actually souls, but
> are in fact a special variety of undead that
> thinks it is just a soul?  So, what is going on is
> that at the point of death in one of the source
> pyramids you don't actually die, but are turned into
> this sort of undead, call it a 'soul sprite'?

Definately souls.  It plays on a couple of things from
the Tomb of Horrors & Return to Tomb of Horrors: 

1. In the original Tomb of Horrors, there were six
possible locations for the Tomb.  I played that up,
and then some, in the moon's history.

2. In Return, Acererak is stealing souls to power up
his artifact.  So in this I played that up into he's
stealing souls to power his moon & its economy :D


> Might the mechanism that transports souls could be
> used to invade Monolythe, as you could enter a
> pyramid and use the link to open some sort of inter-
> universal portal to the head of the Daughters
> of Styx, then take an army through?


Suicidal, but doable (would YOU take an army of 1st
level peons to a moon of golem-liches?!?!).  In fact,
I'm contemplating making an adventure, and that'd be a
perfect mechanism to get the PCs to the moon! :D


> Or, maybe there is some way that a spelljamming
> craft could follow a guide through the phlogiston
> from a world where someone has lost a companion to
> one of these pyramids, which would lead them to the
> right crystal sphere, then actually to the world of
> Monolythe?

Why not?  Sounds like a damned good adventure hook to
me! :)


> By the way, I'm not sure what the 'XXX' means in the
> text - did you mean to substitute something there?
 
Oh, that one's simple: I ****** up.  I use XXX where I
mean to put something there, but I can't think of a
good proper name at the time.  I usually clean those
out before I finish, but that one slipped through :(

Adam


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