Campaign conundrum

[RMajere]

Alright, so I'm starting a new campaign in a week or so, and I know that the major parts of the plot revolve around resurrecting a slain goddess. And while I'm confident in my DM powers to have my players accomplish such a feat, I'm putting it out there.

How would you go about bringing a slain god/dess back to life? How have you heard/read about it happening?

I'm just looking for more ideas, so feel free to supply them as you see fit.

Thanks!

[Anaesthesia]

The only time I've seen/heard of resurecting a slain god or goddess was during the Time of Troubles. Several of the god/goddesses were killed, some of their portfolios being taken over by mortals (such as in the case of Cyric, Midnight and Kelvemor), or absorbed/split into other gods/goddesses. If I remember correctly, Torm was the only one to be resurrected by Ao, the Overlord.

[RMajere]

*nods* I'm familiar with the ToT in the Realms, despite never having played a game there. Just read a lot, lol.

I had thought about having an NPC, or even (god forbid) one of my players taking the role, but that just didn't seem to fit. Although its possible that having that happen could be one component of the whole thing...

[gdmcbride]

Bringing a goddess back to life sounds like a cool centerpiece of a campaign. Some random brainstorming:

1. The Last Cleric (a great role for a PC) -- a fragment of the goddess reincarnated as a mortal and in effect the goddess became her own cleric. Though the fragment has forgotten its own identity (death and rebirth is very traumatic), it still has dreams of finding her old artifacts and centers of worship to reclaim more and more fragments. Fragments come with memories and special powers until at last a critical mass is reached and then in one climactic moment ... rebirth.

2. Another (perhaps lesser diety) has stolen (and perhaps perverted) the fallen's portfolio. That demigod is the ultimate bad guy of the campaign.

3. When the goddess died, she fragmented into the seven shards. At least one of the shards should be an angel, one should be a mortal and all of them should represent various aspects of the goddess' nature.

4. Goddess' often have divine family. What do they think of this death? Are they working for a resurrection or are they squabbling over her power?

5. Gods are only vulnerable when their followers lose faith. The enemy who killed the goddess first infiltrated and corrupted her church stripping her of her true believers. In order to resurrect the goddess, first their must once more be faith in her. The PCs must do miracles in her name and bring the word of her resurrection to the people. Belief is reality.

6. The Goddess was betrayed by one her own angels who coveted godhood. Now the angel, who is corrupted and falling slowly under the influence of the arch-devils, strains to regain her trappings and ascend to full divinity.

7. The Goddess is not dead. She is only sleeping as she changes into another more powerful form. To complete the ritual of rebirth, she requires powerful artifacts gathered by the few followers she remains in contact with.

Just a few random ideas.

Gary

[tesral]

Basic plot coupon scenario. However plot coupons work well in RPGs and you can get inventive as to what the coupons are.

It's time to write those multi-part prophecies.

Something I did in one campaign was the false master. The principle was lead by a teacher that it turned out was the very person that he needed to oppose.

You give then a way to get out of the circumstance, but the false master leads them down the wrong road.

In the case of this circumstance the False Master, truly the character's father, was seeking to be slain by the son to take over his body and break out of an ancient curse and imprisonment. They discovered the ruse (part of the ruse) but also discovered the don't kill him part and didn't. The Father was defeated.

[kitsune1842]

I have done it once before in a game we played, although it ended with us being tricked into bringing back Tiamat to life. Most of the campaine revolved around us recovering a set of books made by a mad man to stela the power of a God, and all of Tiamat's skulls, and being tricked into giving them all over to the BBEG who just wanted to bring Tiamat back to life. We did eventually figure it out, inturupt the ceramony, and have to fight an aspect of Tiamat that almost wiped the party.

[Malruhn]

What was wrong with the "Gonad the Barbarian" with Schwartzenegger?? A planetary alignment, months of prepping, and then escorting the virgin princess to be sacrificed... without knowing why you are bringing her there. Perhaps even a side quest to find the dead god's missing horn.

It's been many years since it came out - it would be easy to disguise to ensure they didn't recognize the plot.

Sounds like a whole lot of fun!!

[DMMike]

Bringing a goddess back to life sounds like a cool centerpiece of a campaign. Some random brainstorming:...
Gary

Someone remind me to hire Gary for my next plot.

RMajere - might help if you provided some input on the nature of your gods. Are they supermortals, planar beings, or the cause of physics and magic?

Resurrection tends to be hard to get for mortals...maybe god life-force doesn't cease to exist, it just gets spread out and must be collected. Of course, other gods (and their avatars) are keenly interested in preventing this.

[RMajere]

RMajere - might help if you provided some input on the nature of your gods. Are they supermortals, planar beings, or the cause of physics and magic?

Well the campaign is set in the Scarred Lands. If you're familiar with the setting, great. If not, then a little background can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarred_Lands

That being said, as far as I know the gods can't be killed in this setting, because they are now planar beings, and removed from the material plane. But they can manifest avatars, which can be killed and captured. I'm pretty sure mortals and other beasties can't kill an avatar and have it destroy the god. But a Titan could, which is what happened in this particular case.

She was hunted and slain by the titan Hrinruuk, like so many other demi-deities. Which is not to say that its going to be any less difficult to raise her, because demi-deities in S.L. are pretty much as immortal/powerful/untouchable as the greater gods, by virtue of being rather removed from the material plane.

Hope this helps. =)

All the ideas have been really helpful, if anymore are out there, I'd love to hear them!

[nijineko]

greyhawk has standard methods of dealing with such scenarios, which have changed from edition to edition.

some things that have remained fairly consistent:

• the astral plane also doubles as the graveyard of the powers, those that have been forgotten, lost, gave up, or simply died. most of the solid matter in the astral plane is the stony remnants of the bodies of the powers-that-were.
• it is possible (if very difficult) to ascend, it is also possible to descend-including forcibly against the powers will.
• ascending usually involves seriously high levels, major quests of three impossible tasks or somesuch, multiple artifacts, and/or trickery on a cosmic scale.
• it is possible to trap the powers, typically through the use of epic and artifact level stuff.
• mortals can become temporary avatars and the like.
• dalliances are possible between mortals and immortals.
• there is some (possibly deliberately so) unclearly defined relationship between mortal worshipers and the existence of said power. there seems to also be a vague correlation between part of the power level of said power and the number of worshippers. however, it also is pretty clear that some powers are simply more capable than others, even without worshippers.
• there is an over-power that created everything, has nothing to do with mortals, and acts simply as a referee for the powers using some pattern of rules to do so that doesn't always make sense.

one scenario that i like to have fun with is that one of the powers has seriously pissed off another, and is trying to find a way to hide. what better way than to switch places with a mortal temporarily, have fun and do whatever, and then after the the pissed off power has gotten over being angry, switch back. of course, they will have an iron-clad contract... one that the hapless mortals couldn't possible find a loop hole in.... (but i can guarantee that the players will!) =D

however, that is neither here nor there. most scenarios involving the return of a formerly dead power has to do with finding some associated epic/artifact item and/or location, finding or converting some worshippers, and occasionally finding and acquiring some sort of power source, be that a "divine spark" or some other related thing, combined with some ceremony.

frequently all this stuff has a tightly related theme specific to the power in question. and sometimes has to be done by a true believer.... i recall one hilarious series of books ("goblin hero" is the title of one of them i think) wherein the epic tale of the brave heroes descent into the dark and treacherous goblin-infested depths are told from the perspective of one of the goblins who are simply wishing that they could live in peace and be left alone to harvest their mushrooms and fungus quietly.

being one of the few to survive the slaughter, he is taken along with the party to show them the way, in true player-npc style. ^^ and winds up saving their butts, all because he got lost and trapped and found the last artifact of a forgotten god that contained the last little bit of his sleeping essence. whereupon the god made a deal... and presto, the goblin is now a cleric... the only one in the party, of course.

anyway, i got sidetracked yet again! sorry. ^^

i would find it amusing to have the last little bit of the power's essence have gone on strike, being sick and tired of granting spells, and listening to all the whiney worshippers, and granting miracles that are totally selfish... and wound up drowning her sorrows into a cup at the world serpent inn, or maybe callahan's crosstime saloon. (thursday night, of course, if the latter!) it would be quite amusing if whatever her portfolio was stopped happening while she was "dead". that would be interesting if she was the goddess of death. or something else similar. have you decided what her portfolio is? a lot of ideas can be generated from just that.

[RMajere]

She's the demi-goddess of magic/knowledge/wizardy what have you...

[nijineko]

hahahaha! so magic simply stops while she is "dead". that would put a twist on things.

[ignimbrite]

I have been a fan of "dead" deity bodies on the astral plane and the PCs having to collect artefacts. Twist being that the artefacts are organs of the deity. Guess I am influenced a bit by Diablo 2 and other games.