Powers & Deities

[Carthrat]

If at all possible I'd like an overview of the general, um, mechanics of how this stuff works in this game, specifically. It is relevant because unlike in a typical game set on some material plane, in this game it seems possible, even probable, to literally stumble over the home of some god or archdevil or who-knows-what, and we would almost certainly be dealing with their minions and forces in a less detached fashion than in the typical game.

I mean, as an example, let's say we dropped everything, went 'Ogremoch sucks', and dedicated the rest of the campaign to going to war with him or something. What kind of stuff could we do in this scenario? How could we hit a power where it matters? I'm not suggesting we literally go to his house and try stabbing him in the face (since I presume you need to be epic to do that, or at least in the high teens or have some artifact Ogremoch-slaying sword, or whatever), but knowing roughly where we would stand in such matters would be nice, and I assume there are a few common threads between all deities here.

I think there's enough K:P in the group that we'd know a few things. Or maybe it should be K: Religion? Hard to tell in this one. If it should all be a big secret then forget I said anything.

[Anastasia]

If at all possible I'd like an overview of the general, um, mechanics of how this stuff works in this game, specifically. It is relevant because unlike in a typical game set on some material plane, in this game it seems possible, even probable, to literally stumble over the home of some god or archdevil or who-knows-what, and we would almost certainly be dealing with their minions and forces in a less detached fashion than in the typical game.

I mean, as an example, let's say we dropped everything, went 'Ogremoch sucks', and dedicated the rest of the campaign to going to war with him or something. What kind of stuff could we do in this scenario? How could we hit a power where it matters? I'm not suggesting we literally go to his house and try stabbing him in the face (since I presume you need to be epic to do that, or at least in the high teens or have some artifact Ogremoch-slaying sword, or whatever), but knowing roughly where we would stand in such matters would be nice, and I assume there are a few common threads between all deities here.

I think there's enough K:P in the group that we'd know a few things. Or maybe it should be K: Religion? Hard to tell in this one. If it should all be a big secret then forget I said anything.

So you wanna know about the powers, Missy? Well, sit right down and Granny Tam'll set you straight on them! What's that, you're not Mari? You make a fine Missy today, so sit down. That's right...

*THWAP!*

Ho ho ho, don't you go glaring at me over that! That's just what a power would do to you if you were unlucky enough to meet one. Be like dropping a mountain on a cockroach to kill it! Your family's powerful magic, but the Gods go creating those things as party favors! Don't you even get the idea of fighting one in your head 'till you can keep up. Fortunately, it takes a lot of effort to get a real planar lord or God to give you a seeing to. They have servants for that. No no, the great powers RARELY come into direct conflict. The afterlife's not about Dispater and Raziel throwing down every Thursday night over the proper alignment to go with order, Missy!

Servants, it's all about servants. You wanna hurt Ogremoch, you got the right idea. Kill his servants, undermine his worshipers, ruin his plots, loot his treasuries. Fortunately, unless you really give a God the furious shakes at you, it'll stay that way. As long as you don't go into it's home ground, you'll have a chance. Do enough of that and you might really hurt the power. But make no mistake, you do that enough and you'll have a real enemy for all eternity, Missy! Pissing off a power with another power to support you is the most dangerous game, like if you're a famous cleric or hero of the opposite number. Pissing off one without that? It doesn't stop at death. They'll get your SOUL. Don't have one? They'll make one right in...

*Chest poke*

there, then kill you. Right now, you've just ruined the careers of a few servants. But if you keep that up with Ogremoch, it's going to become personal. You want to face a power, don't do it by half measures.  Now, now, don't give me that look. The other Missy's giving up enough of those looks lately. There's tales of when a plucky hero does what you're thinking. Orcus took it in the neck once, but he got better. Nasty demon prince of the Abyss, lord of undeath, ugliest customer you can imagine, dead! Or Cantrum of the Dark Ministry of Baator, a near-power living in deepest Nessus? A paladin manned up and knocked him off.

But you want to really fight a power, Missy? It's a crusade that lasts all your live and then whatever afterlife you have coming. Of course, if you succeed, you're one of the greatest heroes of all time.

[Anastasia]

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I'll cut away to OOC for a moment. I'll be honest, I've never meant this to be a high power game. If you really, really, really want to oppose a God or planar power, you're in for the fight of your afterlife. These are beings that have lived for millions, billions or trillions of years, killing one is a rare and miraculous event. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if you get in your head you wanna get rid of Ogremoch or another one for good, you'd better be prepared for it.

[Dracos]

Very cool info post.  I'll admit while goal wise I think I'm seeing higher with Kam's route than the campaign merits, I don't think (nor really want) to be dishing it out with gods of evil.  Maybe, (and this is maybe), toward the very end we might face off against folks strong enough to be considered major servants of a given god, but almost hopefully not.  Chess analogies below~

In character, Kam is aware that in the grand scheme of things, he's a weak pawn of a knight of a lesser-mid power of one plane.  He's gotten to see what being even that level means.  If he reaches say, the level of a knight of a lesser-mid power at some point, he'd probably turn around and stare in surprise at how very far he's come and the fact that at this point he could likely wipe out the vast majority of his race solo.  He'd probably count that as achieving a victory level to his wildest dreams...  and then see if he could go further, but that's just because stopping his journey at that point would be boring.

But even at that point, he'd not be in a good spot if the actual lesser-mid power decided he needed to be offed.  Real Gods?

OOC I would guess that Ogremoch is somewhere between a little below the power of my patron to a little above the power of THEIR patron.  Probably erroring on the higher side of that scale.  In the realm of real Gods?  I don't think that Ogremoch rates more than a low pawn or knight.  Why do I think this way?  At least so far, we haven't seen a vast stretch of the plane devoted to him.  He's more like the evil divine lord of a continent sized area of worshippers than a planar lord ruling over the majority or entirety of the plane of earth.  He probably has a fair number of powerful followers, and possibly as many as thousands of fodder followers.

I could be wrong, he could be spread about many planes with lots of worshippers.  It's always really difficult for an ant to see how high the mountain is.  But that's the feeling I've gotten from what I've seen so far.

In either case, if he decides directly to intervene in the whole war between one of his cities/kingdoms, the dao, and the xorn it would mean two things:
A)He's more likely on the weaker end of the spectrum.
B)The game just became "Get everyone in hardsoil out of the blast radius" rather than "Make the city survive the clashing forces around it" because just because of A doesn't actually make that a scenario hardsoil would survive.

[Sierra]

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I'll cut away to OOC for a moment. I'll be honest, I've never meant this to be a high power game. If you really, really, really want to oppose a God or planar power, you're in for the fight of your afterlife. These are beings that have lived for millions, billions or trillions of years, killing one is a rare and miraculous event. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if you get in your head you wanna get rid of Ogremoch or another one for good, you'd better be prepared for it.

I assume Rat was mostly asking so we can stay out of their way, really.

IC response was pretty awesome, by the way.

[Carthrat]

Sure! Avoid them!

Until some cleric git gets his hand on one of my siblings. Then I'll go sign up with clerics on the other side and start up a wave of terror~

[Carthrat]

Idly, that really was some nice writing there. Novel quality, even.