Dead Gods: Difference between revisions
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==Out of the Darkness== | ==Out of the Darkness== | ||
The party visits Crux, a branch of Yggdrasil | As leadup, something Horrible murdered Modron Primus, took Its place, and set off the Modron March to tour the planes too early. ''The Great Modron March'' anthology dealt with that. | ||
At the start of this one, the party visits Crux, a branch of Yggdrasil; where they learn that this Horrible thing is bumping off gods. These particular gods are 2e obscurities like the illithid god of knowledge. Thence it's off to Baator, Orcus' old fortress in the Negative Material, the [[Erelhei-Cinlu|Vault of the Drow]] (yes, that one), and Pelion. | |||
Over the course of this adventure the party may, or may not, understand that the Horrible is naming itself "Tenebrous" and is Orcus back from the grave. Tenebrous isn't exactly Orcus at his full strength... but he's got hold of some powerful OTHER magic, like the Last Word, which kills gods dead. | Over the course of this adventure the party may, or may not, understand that the Horrible is naming itself "Tenebrous" and is Orcus back from the grave. Tenebrous isn't exactly Orcus at his full strength... but he's got hold of some powerful OTHER magic, like the Last Word, which kills gods dead. | ||
Revision as of 14:13, 25 June 2020
 This article contains spoilers! You have been warned. |
Dead Gods is a Monte Cook "deluxe adventure" module for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This module was Wizards of the Coast's end-run around 2e's restrictions, to restore Orcus to canon.
It's technically two adventures: "Out of the Darkness" (124 pages), and "Into the Light" (31 pages). Nobody pays attention to "Into the Light". Honestly they haven't paid much attention to "Out of the Darkness" either on account the plot is so broken.
Out of the Darkness
As leadup, something Horrible murdered Modron Primus, took Its place, and set off the Modron March to tour the planes too early. The Great Modron March anthology dealt with that.
At the start of this one, the party visits Crux, a branch of Yggdrasil; where they learn that this Horrible thing is bumping off gods. These particular gods are 2e obscurities like the illithid god of knowledge. Thence it's off to Baator, Orcus' old fortress in the Negative Material, the Vault of the Drow (yes, that one), and Pelion.
Over the course of this adventure the party may, or may not, understand that the Horrible is naming itself "Tenebrous" and is Orcus back from the grave. Tenebrous isn't exactly Orcus at his full strength... but he's got hold of some powerful OTHER magic, like the Last Word, which kills gods dead.
The last stages, not to say the closest this thing gets to a plot, is when the party passes through a semiambulatory 10' vagina (I wish I was kidding) into lowest Pandemonium. They pick up Orcus' Wand and, with that, go to the Astral for Orcus' floating corpse. They don't fight Tenebrous himself there; just one of his priests. Why? Don't know!
For all that this (sub)module is Orcus' vehicle out of The Dead-Book, he's a sideline character. The module's job is to amuse the party whilst the canon is getting changed, no matter what they do. As a storyline, the adventure fails the central test of "does it make the party, heroes"; as an adventure, it is a railroad better published by Union Pacific than by any RPG outfit.
Legacy
Orcus is back and he's bad. Er. That's about it. I mean, besides de-canonising extraneous divinities that hardly anyone even knew existed.