Frodo threw the One Ring into Mt Doom, Luke blew up the Death Star - need an epic ending

[NewJeffCT]

for my D&D campaign.

The only difference is that there is primarily one hero in many fantasy novels and movies - Frodo was the primary focus of Lord of the Rings; while Luke was the focus of Star Wars; Shea Olmsford in Sword of Shannara, heck, Buffy was the primary heroine in her show, - while my D&D campaign will have four heros/stars that will need to be satisfied in the end. People want to be Frodo, Luke, etc and not so much Merry & Pippin, C3PO, Flick Olmsford or Xander.

Right now, unbeknownst to the players, the minions of the evil god of slavery & tyranny have uncovered an ancient artifact that they believe will enable their followers to conquer the world. The dark sacrificial ritual to "activate" this artifact is a process that will take about nine months in game (no, it's not a coincidence that it's the length of a human pregnancy - it's an evil god and an evil ritual, after all)

I'm working on filling in an ancient prophecy now but, I was thinking of having the players (who will coincidentally hopefully be revealed as heroes out of the prophecy) accumulate some artifacts of good to counteract the effect of the evil artifact. The three artifacts are symbols of various good deities that have some connection to the players: including an Eagle's Claw (sign of the good deity of freedom), a silver star and a silver rose (signs of two other good deities).

What sort of ritual/event/battle can I have that will be a nice climax to the players getting these three items? What can happen once these three items are accumulated? Just a cancelation of the evil magic seems crappy. I was hoping for some sort of action oriented finish - I'm kind of drawing a blank in tying it all together in the end. A super-weapon will mean it's only one player in the end that strikes the fatal blow to the BBEG.

The best D&D campaign I was involved in as a player involved a similar race against time, only this was to prevent the birth of a dark & evil god that would rule the world for 300 years - in the end, 8 or 9 of the players held off the demon lord while one player went off to perform a rather brutal abortion on the pregnant woman right before the dark child could be born...(well, it wasn't called an abortion in game) The one player that killed the dark child was the only survivor among the players - the demon lord had finished us off.

Anyhow, I don't want to copy that climax, but did "borrow" the pregnancy idea, with a bit of a twist.

[flvegan]

1. Hero scoring with the twin princesses?

[NewJeffCT]

2. well, it would have to be four heroes then...

scoring with four princesses.

And, i also have two other gamers that I'm considering adding to the group and they are a married couple, so I don't think shagging a princess would fly with her.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. She has to shag the oddball Mind Flayer, who wants to be dentist and is lawful good.

[SoxFan]

7. Have to work a Beholder in, though

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. The princesses would have them as part of their chastity belts.

[ZombieNixon]

3. Epic collective bargaining.

Adding the word "epic" to anything automatically makes it so. :P

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. Yes! I like that - a more powerful god locks them in a room and doesn't let them out

until they come to some kind of consensus and make nicey nicey.

[ZombieNixon]

10. It is a battle of wills!

[SteppingRazor]

4. You can have each of them be the Frodo or Luke...

in a series of pre-climax climaxes. At some point, as the deadline nears, the players are forced to split up to accomplish several goals at once, thus thwarting the ancient evil artifact. But, they then have to come back together for the real climax (for them, if not for the world) in which they must take on all of the minions who were trying to use the artifact.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. They must all sacrifice their eldest sons with the artifacts

in front of the bad guys as they "give birth" to the new evil.

Only an act of that much love and self-sacrifice can counter the evil of the birthing process and will surround the newborn evil thingy with so much power of good that it can't "draw its first breath" and so smothers and dies, stillborn, with all artifacts being drained of their power.

Or, if having them in front of the bad guys is not possible in your scenario, make the good gys' artifacts and the bad guys' artifact magically linked, and the good guys just have to sacrifice their sons (wherever they are at the time - maybe on some kind of special magical vortex) at the same moment as the bad guys bring in the new evil.

Hopefully you have a Paladin in the group, who will have to give up his Paladinhood for such an act, and the alignments of all the characters should be shifted one notch toward evil. They will have saved the world, but will have had to sacrifice not only their children, but part of their humanity as well - the curse of the hero, that they do not come out of their quest without being changed and being stripped of something or somethings that they held dear and thought impossible to live without.


Or, if they don't have children now, part of the deal could be that they have to impregnate women and then kill the woman and the gestating fetus with the artifact in order to "charge" the artifact, so that it will be impossibly powerful in time for the final confrontation.

[NewJeffCT]

12. not a bad idea, actually

The part about sacrificing their paladinhood... The one fighter (an elf) in the group is going to start putting levels into paladin (as a C/G Paladin of Freedom) and eventually hopes to become a champion of the Chaotic Good god of Freedom, who is kind of the opposite of the L/E god of slavery & tyranny. I had planned on objects for these three deities including the god of freedom, but I could change it to deities for the other 3 players, and have the paladinhood sacrifice be the climax? Or maybe a Buffy like ending (from season 5) where "Death" is his gift to save the world.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Chaotic good Paladins? Did they change the rules?

I'm glad you like my idea! I think forcing a sacrifice of someone else is much better than asking someone to sacrifice themselves - that's been done to death (no pun intended) in literature; the cliche "Christ figure" is getting tiresome.

It would be a great moral dilemma for all of them to have to kill a family member or other innocent, and for a Paladin (which in the old system that I played, were always and only lawful good) to have to do something that is, in all respects, an evil act - but an act that, by choosing not to do it, will allow even more evil into the world.

Sort of a Bonnhoeffer situation, in which he knew that assassinating Hitler was an evil and sinful act, because it was the taking of a life, but he tried to do it anyway knowing that the end result was a more moral good than letting Hitler live. Except in your campaign, it would be that Bonnhoeffer, instead of trying to kill Hitler directly, had to kill his own girlfriend or mother, knowing that would end Hitler's life.

[NewJeffCT]

15. In one of the books

Maybe Unearthed Arcana? They presented 3 alternative paladins to the typical Lawful Good one. The L/E Paladin of Tyranny, the C/G Paladin of Freedom and the C/E Paladin of Slaughter.

[Orsino]

29. Dragon #106 (I think) offered paladins for all alignments.

For years, my wife played nothing but Myrikhans (NG).

[NewJeffCT]

30. that is prior to the current editions, though

Dragon #106 is back from 1E days, wasn't it?

[Orsino]

31. Well, if you want to insist that 1E isn't current...

...I will reluctantly concede the point. I only play 2E these days.

But there is ample (if semi-official) precedent for paladins championing every alignment. I'll bet that somewhere out there is a 3E conversion, or an alternate take.

[NewJeffCT]

32. every edition is current

heck, we even played Basic D&D a few years back and went through The Keep on the Borderlands. My halfling was the group's only survivor - it was otherwise a TPK. (The DM said he thought it was silly that goblins would have a useful "potion of invisibility" lying around in a trunk as treasure when it could prove vital to the defense of their lair...)

But, the Unearthed Arcana I had mentioned was the most recent version that had the paladins of the various "extreme" alignments. I'm pretty sure they've had "alternate" paladins in every edition.

[Bucky]

48. Isn't that the plot to "Star Trek 3: The Seach for Spock"?

[TrogL]

11. Surprise ending

The combination is actually fatal. You've been fooled all these years. Everybody dies a horrible, whimpering death.

[AngryAmish]

14. They have to eat the giant burrito

Then wait for the explosion...

[MonkeyFunk]

16. I star in a three-way with Jake Gyllenhaal and Oscar de la Hoya...

that's my hero's journey.

[YankeyMCC]

17. Frodo didn't throw the ring...

it fell with Gollum into the fiery pit.

Bat I get your point ;)

Often the theme of good vs evil is portrayed as harmony vs discord. In the Lord of the rings one way Sauron 'attacked' was to sow fear and doubt that drove division between the forces of good.

So perhaps you could come up with some action sequence that requires all four of your heroes to work together or more simply come back together after being separated.

Something like they each have to fight their way through evil hoards to get to a certain place where all the others are and they each have to lay hands on a device or spot to get or activate the artifacts.

And if there was a sequence of events just prior to make them each have reason to distrust each other that would help raise the suspence.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. You have 3 artifacts, and 4 heroes - obviously one of them is going to have to be sacrificed

"for the greater good". Whether you want to get your players to choose which one it is (a game of magical musical chairs or something), or you reserve the right to choose the player who pisses you off the most, is up to you. Or you could get the to play The Weakest Link, and vote out the one they hate the most.

[taterguy]

19. Would it kill you to include a spoiler alert?

Some of us haven't seen those movies.
Welcome to ignore

[NewJeffCT]

24. The Titanic sinks in the end, too

I'm a bastard, I know

[Bucky]

50. Spoiler alert: This reply line ruins Crying Game... She's actually a dude, dude! nt

I've never used "nt" before. Does anyone know what "nt" stands for?

[JVS]

20. Holy Grail ending. The police show up and arrest everyone

[taterguy]

21. Damnit, I haven't seen that movie either

[JVS]

22. It's RUINED RUINED RUINED!

BWUAHAHAHAHAHAH!

[taterguy]

23. Posting spoilers is never funny

Unless you make up a plausible one and someone believes you.

[NewJeffCT]

25. If somebody hasn't seen Stars Wars in the 30+ years since it's debut

when it's arguably the most well known movie of all time, what does it take to not qualify as a spoiler?

Same with Lord of the Rings - the books were maybe the most popular books of the 20th century and the movies among the most popular...

[taterguy]

46. Apparently those movies don't have anything about common courtesy in them

DON'T START A FUCKING THREAD WITH A FUCKING SPOILER IN THE FUCKING HEADER

Why is that simple rule so difficult do understand?

And why are you replying to someone that has you on ignore?

[Giant Robot]

26. Give them each an opposite on the evil side

So they have someone they are emotionally invested in defeating. One bad guy stole something of value from one good guy. One bad guy raised one good guy's village. Etc. I don't think its necessarily about being the epic hero, but feeling like you have accomplished something epic. And that can turn out to be just defeating your nemesis.

The ending can then be as you wish. Like one character becomes the savior/sacrifice/whatever you want. Or they could all work together to beat big bad. But that won't matter as much as beating the guy who killed your best friend or whatever.

[NewJeffCT]

33. I was planning on introducing at least one "opposite" in the coming sessions

the party's elf fighter & future C/G paladin of freedom... Will have a drow elf L/E opposite. Since I've hardly mentioned the drow so far, it will hopefully come as a surprise when she's revealed. You have drow elf vs high elf; L/E vs C/G; female vs male.

the party sorcerer had a bit in his "character history" as being the 4th son of a minor noble and being a bit of a black sheep in his family for not following family tradition and his going out and being an adventurer. So, I was thinking of having a bit of sibling rivalry introduced with maybe an older brother having fallen under the sway of some evil force (like a Wormtongue like figure)

Not sure about the party rogue yet, but he is supposed to be an escaped slave - so, maybe a bounty hunter looking for reward?

the party cleric is kind of obvious for a nemesis...

[Giant Robot]

35. As a side note

I always hated the idea of a "prophesy" and all that nonsense. I think that's too much a cliche in fantasy, and more often than not a poor use of plot device versus good storytelling. Not that this is the case for you, because I know only so much about this campaign. I was just letting my biases be known.

I wouldn't have the sorcerer's sibling, and what a good idea that is, be under some evil influence. Just let them be evil themselves. Or misunderstood. That way the focus is all on the sibling and not some Svengali type person. Makes emotions run higher.

Rogue, could be chased by a bounty hunter, or someone that reminds him of his slave days. A fellow slave set loose to hunt him down in return for his/her freedom? Kind of Gollum-ish but could be a set up for nice drama. Or have them run into each other, act like old friends, and have that person betray and try and capture the rogue and take him back into slavery. Nothing like betrayal to make someone want to kill.

[NewJeffCT]

42. well

I've only really been involved with one long-term campaign where a prophesy was involved, and I've played D&D for nearly 30 years now. So, it's not so much of a cliche for me in game, and it was a great campaign.

and, I am trying to keep it vague enough where the players won't feel railroaded into acquiring items A, B & C at exotic locations D, E and F, where the items are guarded by Demon X, Lich Y and Dragon Z.

If they interpret something totally different in game, and it works, I'll go with it and adapt.

And, of course, there is also the possibility that somebody dies in game, and maybe one Raise Dead or Resurrection isn't cheesy... but, if you overdo something like that, it cheapens the game.

[Chovexani]

39. I meant to ask you how it went with that!

For ego purposes. :evilgrin:

[NewJeffCT]

40. The introduction probably won't be for a few sessions

However, I'll make sure to let you know... :evilgrin:

I'm still in the process of creating the actual NPC - I'm actually toying with the idea of not making her an exact opposite (meaning a L/E paladin of tyranny) and maybe going a bit for opposite approach - maybe a Dusklade type so she can be an offensive wrecking machine, where the Player Character elf is more dex-based with Weapon Finesse.

The Halloween costume (:applause:) was the inspiration for the idea of creating the character, though, for a future in-game event where the party hopefully rescues a missing "NPC of Importance" from the evil slavers. I had originally had an ogre as the "muscle" for the slavers, but decided it might be cool to switch the ogre to a drow elf and change the character into hopefully an ongoing nemesis.

[Orsino]

27. Here it is...

When the three artifacts are wielded together on the battlefield, the wielders find themselves merging into a new deity! For purposes of game balance, they don't get these powers right away--not until the bad guys are nearly defeated. Add extra drama, though, by allowing the bad guys to complete their ritual and produce their dark god; just give the merged players appropriate matching power.

Since you have a fourth player, don't leave him/her out. The new deity's touch is enough to turn the fourth into a godling of some sort, a dragon mount, perhaps. Or if the fourth happens to be of clerical bent, s/he becomes the high priest/ess of the new deity's church.

If you do any role-playing after the transformation, you can require that the three players say their actions in unison, and rule that they do nothing unless they are in perfect harmony, so to speak. The new dark god can be similarly clumsy after its birth/unleashing.

I dig RPG war stories, and am going to ask some advice in another thread.

[NewJeffCT]

28. another good idea

at least it has gotten my creative juices flowing.

I've been trying to put together a prophecy that indicates a dark future unless the players obtain these certain items, but I couldn't think of any way to tie it all together for the end.

I was even thinking of once the three items are tied together, they then have to then find some long lost shrine or temple dedicated to a 4th deity, or similar ancient power, and either cleanse the shrine/temple with the item or whatnot (sort of like Arnold pressing the button on the alien artifact at the end of Total Recall) - or maybe it requires the sacrifice of the 4th, or maybe blood of their family or something like Rabrrrr said above.

Of course, maybe the prophecy leaves that blank, or very very vague (a vague prophecy, inconceivable! :evilgrin: ) and, by the time everything wraps up in the end, the finale will have made itself clear.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

34. Everyone meets in a restaraunt to the sounds of "Don't Stop Believing"

A guy in a Member's Only jacket walks into the bathroom. Then the screen cuts to black. Credits roll.

Oh, wait somebody's telling me that's been done already. Sorry.

I don't know, a spell gets cast with a witches brew. And dragons fly out of a boiling caldron.

[PVnRT]

36. Coke-fueled orgy with at the local brothel

[Rabrrrrrr]

37. Cthulhu, watching from R'lyeh, finally says "This is ri-goddamn-diculous!"

comes out of hiding, and eats everyone.

end of campaign.

[NewJeffCT]

38. well, like they say

No Cthulhu, know peace - Know Cthulhu, no peace.

[EstimatedProphet]

41. As already stated, Frodo didn't throw in the ring

And that actually was the point, which is where I'm going to go with this. Frodo didn't throw in the ring. Neither did Isildur. No one ever could have done it either, because the ring was so powerful it would take over any living thing's will. It could only have been destroyed by accident. So, what I would say is, I think for a truly epic ending you should try to think along those lines. What you should have is your evil artifact destroy itself through overreaching. Without more information I can't give you any specifics on how to end things.

[NewJeffCT]

43. I'm not sure that could work in a D&D setting, though

Most of the time, players like the big finish of them slaying the Big Bad Evil Guy at the end in a climactic showdown.

I'd have to think of making it appropriately climactic while making the BBEG overreach, too.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

44. How's about the evil thing that's gestating...

gets converted into good, ushering in an era of peace and happiness across the realms, and your heroes get to be the child's guardians until it comes of age.

[NewJeffCT]

47. that's another good idea

thanks

[Rabrrrrrr]

52. And on the day it comes of age, it's full evil potential comes back, and it eats everything.,

leaving a world that is utterly dead; not even a microbe is left.

[Javaman]

45. Fling the donut into the 7/11. This works on many levels.

the donut is representative the ring for Lord o' the rings. The 7/11 represents the death star.

However, both item and location represent man's frustration with an over indulgent society based on a "need it now" mentality.

oh and also...

You could have the donut explode.



that would just be cool. :rofl:

[Bucky]

49. They must destroy the evil towers by commandeering passenger dragons using only +1 daggers

So that a purely good, yet innocent, prince can rise to the throne and become a mighty king who destroys all evil.

[Bucky]

51. The demon turns out to be the janitor trying to drive Scooby's gang from the old park

but I just can't think of an appropriate closing line to end the whole adventure

[Generic Brad]

53. Kucinich restores the Constitution to the White House

That is an epic ending I could live with.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

54. Ding ding ding!

That's a winner if I ever heard one!

[NewJeffCT]

55. too big of a stretch

I want to have some realism to my fantasy game!