Re: MotM: Monolythe

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Mon 09 Oct, Adam Miller wrote:
> --- Dreamer <dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk> wrote:
[snip]

> > 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).

Technically you could claim mummies are 'very well preserved
corpses', but assuming that holding on to your own body isn't an
issue with regard to your views of the afterlife, your point is
well taken.


> > 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.
[snip]

I might be able to assist a little, if you like - you could
e-mail me directly.


> > 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

I suggested the 'soul sprite' as a 'soul with a necromantic
handle on', so as to avoid the issue of souls being able to say
what happens to them after death, which in 3rdEd for example
means they can refuse to be returned to life, and in some
campaigns you need a god to be able to manipulate souls, in any
way except to prevent their passage.

The mechanics of what you can and cannot do with souls is thus
campaign dependant, whereas the mechanics of what you can do with
non-corporeal undead (like a 'soul sprite') may well be much
clearer-cut.

For example, unless they have got some sort of binding agreement
with them, all bar arch demons and demon princes (arguably of
divine status) can't do much to souls.  Just going into one of
these pyramids and making the mistake of being killed there does
not seem to be a binding agreement.  Acererak is at serious risk
of having to argue with directly manifest gods about this sort of
thing, unless there is something else going on that gives him a
get-out clause.


> > 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

Have fun! [grin]

Throw-in a favourite child of a ruler having suffered this fate,
and I'm pretty sure you could get something underway!


> > 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! :)

Say you use the preserved corpse of the lost soul, who could not
be raised as expected, and Commune said was trapped in another
sphere preventing the resurrection.  The body should make a
pretty good contagion magical link to its missing soul, even
cross-sphere (in the phlogiston all you have is a pointer to
where the destination sphere was when you entered the Flow, no
active tracking need to be done, so as to avoid arguments about
godly power in the Flow).


> > 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 :(

Just shows that you're human (or a good facimile [grin] ), as I
don't know anyone human who doesn't make a mistake on occasion!
[grin]

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/