The Fearless DM

Ran the official kickoff adventure of the Planescape campaign-here’s the short story.

The Conqueror Worms: The players find themselves in possession of a damaged planejammer- an antique cargo ship built to traverse the Inner Planes. After a quick stopoff (for repairs and fuel) at a Githzerai outpost (home to around 600 people, including a group of around 60 pacifist monks)  floating in the Paraelemental Plane of Vacuum, the PCs found themselves having to repel a surprise psurlon invasion. Sort of. It turns out the psurlons appeared in force (~40 Psurlon voidmarines, each of which was probably a match for the group) and really just wanted something. Specifically- there was a shrine on the outpost- a Temple to the Void, and enshrined within was the weapon of a pacifist Githzerai who had once wounded Orcus with his bow.They wanted “the Weapon That Injured Orcus”.

Now, Backstory: Orcus is dead, having been killed by epic-level adventurers who stopped his plans to murder the Raven Queen (this is essentially the plot to Prince of Undeath, the Epic level WOTC Adventure). But in my version of events- The Raven Queen- supreme queen of the death gods.. survives but only barely- she is also terribly weakened, and all of the other death gods (Hades, Yama, Anubis, Osiris, etc) are either vying for power or going into an extremely defensive mode, lest their power be taken as well. And wrinkle #2- Orcus is savvy enough (and has died often enough) to plan for his own death. He cast the Great Wand of Orcus into an Abyssal Vortex where it has been shattered into pieces across space and time. Reassemble the Wand of Orcus, and you get to choose whether or not you want to reassemble Orcus, or kill him off permanently.Reassembling the wand is quest- a 10 part (heroic tier) quest to reassemble the Rod, and a 10 part (paragon tier) quest to reassemble the skull. That works out to 1 piece per level. Why yes, these are first level adventurers.

So what’s the Deal: The Psurlons have made a deal with Orcus, to recover one of the pieces of the rod for the Dustmen, a Planescape faction heavily infiltrated by Orcus’ own cultists. And that piece is “The Weapon that Injured Orcus on the Plane of Vacuum”.

The Psurlons set up anti-magic devices that would destroy the outposts ability to provide air and protection from the ongoing cold/necrotic of the Plane of Vacuum.Bombs. 4 of them- scattered at various points on the outpost. Then… they  entered and made their demands.

Some of the players hunkered down to fight it out, thinking I was going to run some kind of protracted battle of attrition. I had just a few enter at first (so they could get a taste of fighting two at a time), and then 20 Psurlon Voidmarines (these are level 4 elites) in formation.

One of the players figured the gamble out (there was just no way they could sustain this battle) and broke off to rush out and get the weapon that injured Orcus. He broke into the shrine and seized the bow.. and also discovered a secret- there was an arrow there as well- and the arrow had the blood of Orcus. He hid the arrow away.

As the Psurlons invaded he pushed his way forward and handed over the bow. Satisfied, the Psurlons left.. after setting the bombs to go off, destroying the base.

SECRET: The psurlons were too literal- Orcus meant for them to seize the arrow with his blood on it, but they took the bow. Each piece has to be something he’s personally come in contact with. The player figured me out (possibly because he gets my sense of humor) and handed over the bow, but hid the arrow away, thus avoiding a protracted tale of carnage as the psurlons scoured the area and the PCs were either routed or beaten into submission. That last part didn’t happen. The Psurlons left.. but they activated the bombs.

HERE WAS THE REAL ADVENTURE: So now, the psurlons are gone.. and the PCs have 20 minutes to disarm 4 bombs, located outside of the base of Zek’silura,  in the plane of vacuum. They had to wear special suits, leave the protective elemental aegis of the outpost..  and either disarm these devices, or wrench them free from the hull of the outpost. They had to deal with two (slightly randomized) ticking clocks- an air supply and the time the anti-magic shell went off. The Githzerai monks tried to hurry as many civilians as they could into their monastery where a group of monks could create a ritual chant to act as an aegis- but it was a choice- Only up to 200 could be saved this way.If a bomb went off, I got to roll a 1d100+40 and that’s how many civilians perish.

The players performed extremely well- no bombs went off before they either wrenched them free or disarmed them. Also we did my own version of a skill challenge- which basically has to do with running the game as I always have- just structured the skill checks more, providing complications and feedback, ticking down a counter. (It isn’t just about DCs and successes vs fails, guys.) Nobody is allowed to try diplomacy against a bomb or just roll three times and call it done in my campaign, haha.

Some of the more interesting ones was a player that made his way out onto the hull and failed to pry up the legs of the anti-magic device a few times (missing strength checks..) a friend, seeing danger, suited up and follow him out with a set of tools and they unbolted the deck-plating it was anchored to.. finally they kicked it into the void just before it went off. Another player got to the Planejammer, backed it out of the dock and deployed the belly-winch they had used to load and unload cargo.. to wrench the anti-magic shell free from the hull of the outpost.

So yes, it was like a space adventure..

Other stuff: After the big disarm scene, I had the Githzerai offer up an opportunity to contemplate the void. According to legends, the very first Githzerai to live on the rock was cast there and left for dead, but through contemplation he managed to create the first Aegis ritual. Players were allowed to try out a version of this to gain standing with the monks as a sort of quest (reward- a ritual similar to Endure Elelemnts which relates to planar environmental effects).

Here’s the structure: Contemplating the void requires Insight, endurance, wisdom, and arcana. But each supplicant approaches enlightenment differently. The DCs are 20, 18, 16, and 10. But the way it works is that players are able to assign the DCs and order of the rolls however they like.. (you can give yourself a 20 as endurance, or assign the 20 to the wisdom check..) before they actually roll. And then it’s a matter of describing what you are doing. Each failed check causes 1d10+2 cold/necrotic, as you succumb to the void.And I had some interestitial scenes with the chanting monks lowering the aegis and staring u pinto the vortex…

One by one the monks led the PCs out into the darkness and left them, and each one (except one PC) attempted the challenge- only two succeeded. Those who fell unconscious were dragged back inside and revived.

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