Tue Jun 13, 2017 1:29 pm
Help Me Greyhawk Quicksilver Hourglass
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I’m about to run Quicksilver Hourglass, from Dungeon #123, as the capstone of my long campaign, and I’d like to rework the background to tie it more strongly to the World of Greyhawk. Any suggestions or comments are welcome!
MODULE BACKGROUND AS WRITTEN
• Eons ago, the goddess Vourzoun wages war against the other gods and finds herself losing.
• to spite all sides, Vourzoun builds a weapon capable of destroying Prime Material Plane and orders her demigod lieutenant Erivatius (god of aging) to bind his divine essence into the weapon to power it
• intention was, at her command, Erivatius would unlock his lifeforce using a special key and the Quicksilver Hourglass would activate and all living things on the Prime would age 100 years/minute until nothing but dust remained
• rulers of Mechanus demand (to prevent Erivatius to evade his sacrifice) that Vourzoun create 2nd key, which automatically activates when 1st key activated, which would bind Erivatius to the hourglass, where he would await judgment from Mechanus for flouting divine law
• Vourzoun builds 2nd key to keep Hourglass secret, but Erivatius’ followers on Prime rebel at thought of god’s sacrifice and tip off gods of good about the Hourglass
• Faynsor, god of time and knowledge, sacrifices himself to sequester Quicksilver Hourglass in timevoid where it can’t hurt Prime Material Plane
• gods all fight and all destroy each other, allowing new gods to arise
PROBLEMS
• None of these gods, being all dead and gone, are really interesting to the characters. They’ve never heard of them, they have no relationships with them, none of this has any connection with anything they’ve experienced except that it might destroy the universe
• The Quicksilver Hourglass is a great dungeon, but I kind of hate the universe ending via a sci-fi divine techno weapon
POSSIBLE NEW BACKGROUND ADDRESSING THESE PROBLEMS
(These ideas were inspired by a Canonfire post by A-Baneful-Backfire in September 2014)
• Eons ago, gods of good, neutrality, and evil unite to defeat Tharizdun before he destroys the universe but find themselves too weak to prevail
• When all seemed lost, the evil demigod of aging, Erivatius, volunteers to bind himself as a divine powersource to create a prison for Tharizdun
• Having no other choice, the gods agreed to permit this sacrifice
• The rulers of Mechanus, correctly suspecting Erivatius hopes to siphon Tharizdun’s captive essence into himself and hijack his portfolio, creates a special key that will keep Erivatius bound, should he survive his sacrifice
• The Quicksilver Hourglass is not a weapon but the actual body of imprisoned Tharizdun, bound in upon himself in the shape of a timeglass
• Tharizdun’s freedom will, just like in the module, cause rapid aging all over the Prime Material as the imprisoned entropy of Tharizdun catches up all its lost time
What do you guys think? Does this work? Is it better?
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