GenCon Indy 04 - PS - 'Tides of War'

Here is some of my initial notes. More next week.
*WARNING: Planescape spoilers*

Title: Planescape - Tides of War
Sections: 4 - 1 for each day of the convention
Synopsis: The Hollow (aka. Brotherhood of Belief) are trying to break up the Great Ring and destroy Sigil. Once this happens they will be able to gain immense power by consuming the broken pieces of planes.

Background:
- the Rule of Three states that whenever you come across two things, you should look for a third
- when I came across the Incantifer sect and Prolonger sect, I posted a message to the PS mailing list (a LONG time ago) asking what the third sect could be
- I suggested that whilst the first and second sects consumed magic and life-energy, perhaps the third group consumed belief
- after some discussion another member posted a write up of the Hollow (http://mimir.net/sects/belief.shtml)
- ever since I have tried to come up with a way to use the sect in an epic-themed campaign

Campaign Outline:
- after Faction War, there are no organisations that are actively and openly promoting the discussing and acting upon of a particular set of beliefs (excluding those relating to religions). This has led to a 'belief-deficit' in the Cage.
- when the Factions try to regroup on their home planes, they discover that the Sects have been building their power bases as well and that the Guilds quickly move in to replace the power vacuum in Sigil. The power vacuum gets filled, but the belief vacuum does not and anyone trying to claim it is actively opposed by the Factions.
- this means that the Stage is set for several conflicts to occur. Namely those between the Sects and banished Factions. As well as the surviving Factions/Sects and the Guilds.
- this mini-planescape campaign will revolve around the conflicts of the Sects and Factions and at the end between the Factions and the Guilds

Now for some theories/ideas:
- in an infinite Multiverse there could be an infinite number of parallel planes, whether they actually exist or not is not all that important. These (real/potential) parallel planes resonate and influences from one bleed over in to the next.
- major events that cause 'shockwaves' through the planes can be felt on all of them to some extent. For example, the re-birth of Orcus as Tenebrous caused such an effect and the Yggdrassil will take many millennia to recover
- another such an event was the completion of the ritual at the end of Faction War when the 'spell' that reshapes Sigil takes effect
- but what happens if this ritual was not completed in all (real/potential) parallel planes? where does this excess power go to?
- one possible answer is that this excess energy is bled off in to the Far Realm (or Ordial) and weakens the boundaries between that place/time/dimension and the rest of the planes
- this is where the Hollow come in...
- they have quietly been building up their numbers and forging engines that can help them to break down and consume belief as raw energy
- with the expulsion of the Factions from Sigil they have seen their chance to unravel the city, break up the rings on the Outer planes and isolate the Outer planes from each other
- this will mean that they can move in on each of the planes and consume each in turn
- sound crazy? well, yes it is. some would even say that it is impossible. but that does not mean that the Hollow are not going to try and that no one is going to try to stop them
- even if they do not succeed, they will cause immense damage

Some more theory/background/ideas:
- in the Great Modron March adventure and Dead Gods the idea of the Last word and the other words of creation are discussed
- these words of power turn up in other literature, make an appearance in the Neverwinter Nights game and a man who claims to be a letter in the Planescape: Torment game
- some scholars theorise that the Power words are derived from these words
- seeing as they are incredibly powerful, you would think that they would be better guarded than two immortals at the last tower in Pelion
- my theory as to why this is so, is that the words written in the tower are the husks/remains of the words
- in fact the words are living things that can reshape all of reality around them, the next question to ask is: do the words have some measure of identity/awareness?
- where would you keep such words safe? well, why not in the City of Doors where no deity can go?
- if that is indeed the place that they are kept, then how come no one has seen them?
- my theory is something based on what Rip Van Wormer (PS fan) once wrote (see Rip's posting here: http://greyhawkonline.com/pitsofevil/viewtopic.php?t=1811&sid=768f1f91c4...), that the rebuses above a Dabus' head are the real creature and the body is simply an avatar
- the original words have been broken up in to symbols and imprisoned in Sigil as rebuses that can manifest bodies which the new-comers named Dabus
- the Dabus serve The Lady who is presumably their jailor

Coming next: a summary of the 4 adventures and the outcomes each time that it was run, as well as a list of character and player first names.

Thanks,

Simson

Rip - I'm looking forward to seeing your notes posted. Unfrotunately I did not have time to explore the theme of excess belief in the Cage. I described it in the afternoon game as something that the PCs (transforming in to Dabus) could sense as a charge in the air.

Clueless - thanks for the ideas on Saturday night. I liked the one about the PCs transforming in to Dabus and used it to good effect. In the Sunday 12noon game most of the players were familiar with Sigil, Dabus etc. They initially panicked when they started talking in rebuses and floating off the ground. But then started role-playing it by drawing rebuses and showing them to each other :shock:

Zjelani - not to worry, it all worked out in the end and I only had to improvise a lot during the last sessions. Hopefully next year more people will volunteer to run PS games

Simson