The War Without End

Hi, As I threatened on Shemmie's EN World version of the storyhour, I started my storyhour there, and was deafened by the silence of response to it :cry: so I thought I'd post it here and see if I got more feedback. I've copied the posts from there to here, to start it off.

Please let me know what you think of it; I know I've violated some of the sacrosanct holies of Planescape by defining the Lady of Pain and Sigil's purpose, but I would like to know what you all think of it please

------Posted to ENWorld------

Having been an avid consumer of wonderful storyhours like SepII's, Pkitty's, Blackdirge's and Shemeska's I thought it time to create my own and contribute to the wonder that is ENWorld's Storyhour.

I'm going to start with a backstory (currently) unknown to the players/characters, then some ooc campaign description and then move on to the PC intro's before starting on the 6mths+ of sessions.

I apologise in advance to canon-lawyers for the numerous liberties I have taken with the DnD canon which is why I've called this 'Planescape-ish'. I am especially apologetic about defining the Lady of Pain, but my aim has been to create an enjoyable game and I think I've done it ...

The beginning ...

How did it start? no-one who was there will tell, but as I have found some of the secrets I will record what I have learnt.

The birth of an infinite multiverse also gave birth to an infinite variety of things, not all of whom were content with their lot. Chief among these malcontents, who named Himself Tharizdun, was one who believed the multiverse to be flawed. He believed that it was His destiny and right to control the multiverse and use it as His plaything, for what else would do Him the honour he so rightly deserved? So He set about the unmaking of all that was, for there was no other way to bring about His goal.

But His actions were observed by His peers - the beings known as Powers or Gods - who were appalled by His goal - the unmaking of the multiverse and their own concomittant demise. As They were unwilling to set a precedent by His destruction (and unsure if They could destroy Him), They confined Him within the Grey Waste - a dank miserable place at that time unclaimed by any of Their number.

Time passed and His madness - that was what His peers deemed it to be - fed upon itself and from it's fevered revolutions sprang forth inspiration. He created servants who would not be trapped as He was and sent them forth to work His plans. He promised these creatures - the Baernaloths as we know them - that they would survive the Unmaking that He planned and have dominion as His favourites in the multiverse that He would create to follow.

His creatures set about the tasks that He set them; but the other powers had not been idle and had created servants of their own. These servants crossed paths, purposes and eventually swords with those of Tharizdun and the powers began to learn that He had a plan to achieve His goal. Horrified the so-called 'good' powers tried to block His plans, but the enmity held Them by the so-called 'evil' powers largely nullified their efforts.

But not all the Baernaloths were content with their role. One of them was subverted by one of Tharizdun's peers, a power who had chosen not to create Her own servants, preferring to subvert the servants of others. This power had no name - and does not to this day. Her choice of a feminine form - for reasons known only to Herself - has led to her being dubbed The Lady.

The extent of Tharizdun's progress in His plan was made apparent by the traitor and The Lady set about countering His progress using Her minions. Piecing together the information they gave Her, She learnt of a mighty weapon that She might use to combat Him - the Last Word, the ultimate magic of unmaking, a force potent enough to slay a power.

A being of plots, She was unwilling to confront Tharizdun immediately with this weapon and initially used it - successfully - against a lesser power who had pledged allegiance to Him. Flushed with the success of the Last Word and having absorbed the essence and potential of the power She had slain, The Lady resolved to confront Tharizdun.

But to Her dismay, She found that Tharizdun had also somehow learnt the Last Word and was, therefore, immune to its effects. Even as She fled from Him, The Lady began to concoct a plan to counter Tharizdun's plan and advance Herself at the same time.

Using Her minions She arranged a Conclave of the Powers at the centre of the Outlands - believed to be the spot that the multiverse had come into existence from - where magic did not function and the powers would believe themselves safer from treachery.

As expected, not all the powers came to this Conclave, but enough did. What they discussed and who said what is unknown - but as can be imagined is speculated on at great length by the few who know of its existence. But what I have discovered, and can relate here, are the Six Accords of the Conclave:

First: Tharizdun is a pariah and will henceforth be known as The Enemy as He is the ultimate Enemy of all sane Powers

Second: The Enemy should be destroyed and if this not possible for some reason, confined so that He could not bring His plans to fruition

Third: We agree to give some of our servants to create an organisation that would counter the servants of The Enemy once He had been confined – they will known as the Med-Jai

Fourth: The entity who co-ordinated the conclave and brought extent of the plans of The Enemy to the other powers' attention would be rewarded with Her own demense where none of the other Powers would ever interfere

Fifth: The Powers who did not attend the Conclave were declared outlaw and were free game for their enemies present at the Conclave – none there would help them

Sixth: To record for all time the Accords of the Conclave, a symbol would be erected at the spot of the Conclave

Being of diverse natures and opinions, the powers could not agree upon what the symbol of the Accords should be. However, the next power who visited the site of the Conclave found that an immense spire had grown there. Although seemingly infinite, the spire does have a summit, where the names of the Powers and the Accords they reached were recorded by the multiverse for all time. The Powers took this as a sign that the very multiverse itself approved of their Accords.

The war that was the inevitable result of the Fifth Accord is unimportant to this record. It should be noted, however, that The Lady slew several of the errant powers with the Last Word - unknown to her comrades - and increased Her own potential as a result.

But, as had been suspected in the wording of the Second Accord, the Conclave could not destroy The Enemy - even when He had lost allies and servants - the Baernaloths had fled into hiding at the outbreak of the war.

So The Lady arranged a Second Conclave. This time She invited only those powers who had honoured the Third Accord and provided servants to create the Med-Jai. With these eleven powers, after binding them to secrecy, She shared the Last Word and together they confronted The Enemy within the Grey Waste. After a titanic stuggle they were victorious and cast The Enemy into Belierin, the layer of Elysium that held the only gateway to His prison.

On the site of this gateway the twelve powers confirmed the Med-Jai and their pact to keep The Enemy imprisoned for all time and entrusted the key to that prison to their leader The Lady.

She pondered for an age the best way to keep this key safe, before deciding Her course. She created the demense promised Her in the Fourth Accord - Sigil, the City of countless doors (after all how best to hide a key than within countless others?) and set it above the Spire in the Outlands as a reminder to the other powers of - as She saw it - Her primacy in their actions.

This is the end of my account, and by it's recording I have doomed myself to never return to Sigil, for fear of The Lady's retribution.

Legagog the Knowing, Aranea High Priest of Vecna, Uncoverer of all Wanted Hidden

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