Dungeons and Dragons Lore : Atropus
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2024
- The stillborn, undead world, an elder evil of cosmic proportions, an entity that can end an entire world in the Dungeons and dragons roleplaying multiverse, what would happen if this epic threat attacked Toril? How could the players combat such a nightmare scenario and save their campaign world?
Link to "The Call of Atropus" adventure module
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Every wizard on the planet using a 9th level fireball.
Nice (I was 69th reply but someone ruined it *shakes fist*)
...OR... allowing a low level, first time player to use ‘fireball’.😂😂😂
Seriously, I’m sure many of us ‘1st edition old farts’ have some story about a new player almost blowing an area into pieces w/ their first use of Fireball 😂😂😂
The reason Atropus has not been destroyed is because it is invisible to the gods. It is specifically stated in the book "Elder Evils" that they all have the power of anathemic secrecy.
The gods cannot see them.
The gods cannot find them.
They can only perceive the destruction they cause, and by then it is too late.
*HOW TO DESTROY ATROPUS*
*STEP 1:* Travel back in time to the dawn War, and craft a demiplane in the form of a perfect Crystal sphere that is perfectly reflective on the inside. Then open a one-way gateway to the positive energy plane within it, and leave the demiplane collecting positive energy throughout the entirety of Toril's history. The interior of the sphere should essentially be a small star comprised entirely positive energy by the time Atropus appears.
*STEP 2:* Create a magical artifact that links to this demiplane, and spread the story that it is linked to all mortal life on Toril. A conduit, through which a being like Atropus could strike at all life on the planet simultaneously. Pass this information on to the cultures of Toril, and to many of be more powerful celestial beings. The idea is to get this to become myth and Legend, a story that all of the cultures of Toril would hold in common from the dawn of time. Basically, it's Atropus bait.
*STEP 3:* Deliver the artifact to Atropus somehow. Maybe this is a catastrophe that has already taken place earlier in the campaign, and you're now just learning the significance of that artifact. This would allow the players to discover the fascinating truth about an object as old as the world itself, and realize it's true purpose.
*STEP 4:* After Atropus has devoured the artifact, and it has sunken into its interior. Maybe this is the result of a battle that the party lost at lower levels. Trigger the artifact, releasing its many Millennia of stored positive energy into the Atropus' core, vaporizing it from the inside.
*STEP 5:* Realize that you just basically translated Chrono Trigger into Dungeons & Dragons.
Scott Leneau Step 6: it all somehow gets hijacked by demogorgon.
Step 7: beg the DM for a sequel game.
Step 8: make sure the sequel doesn't become Chrono Cross instead of Radical Dreamers. Alternatively see if there is a way to combine the two in a way that is done better than CC.
Step 9: have killing Dalton as part of the campaign, since he practically escaped karma un CT.
Step 1. Shoot the giant glowing eyeballs with markers using telekinesis
I was like this sounds dope uuuuu and then step 5 made me question my own memories, like how do I just let that slip passed me :p
What if we're Atropus? The Earth was "killed" so the Forgotten Realms could be created. Imagine: The players land on Atropus, and they discover remnants of a civilization on the dead world. Destroyed concrete fortresses, large metallic airships, fossilized humanoids... and a culture built around a tabletop game, with figurines that resemble the likeness of the gods. _Existential Dread!_
I'm *_SO_* making this a Retroverse setting for a place in my Lasers & Liches campaign.
@@thegameknight8916😲
@@thegameknight8916now make it so someone wants to revive earth to revive the original gods and now the players can either help this guy out, or try to stop it
Earth is an accessible place via planeshift though, it exists parallel to the Forgotten Realms. Nice theory for a completely different cosmology that has nothing to do with established lore in the Forgotten realms though.
@@ImrahilToChaos the fact that earth exist parallel to the forgotten realms is both hilarious and scary
My favourite take on Atropus, supported in his chapter on Elder Evils, is that he is the Prime Mover himself, the Creator of all who regretted giving life to the first gods (Ao, Shar, Selune?) because, by giving life, he had to sacrifice his own lifeforce as a necessary counterbalance. He seeks to engulf all life so he can undo his own sacrifice and either restore himself as the sole being in existence, or obliterate existence itself since he is tired and sickened of it.
The Gods fear him enormously and dont speak of him, because he is the regretful and embittered creator of their creator. Like Chronos devouring their children. Albeit severely weakened, he cannot be undone because all came from him and not even the Gods know what would happen to Realmspace If Atropus ceased to be.
There is no Hope other than temporarily defeat his Aspect and prepare for a long-term Future when, after devouring more and more planets, Atropus will have enough energy to create another aspect and return for a vengeance.
"Why is the Dungeons and Dragons world so dark?"
I prefer the phrase "a target-rich environment." :P
I sometimes wonder if there was a creative connection between Atropos and Pathfinder's Groteus.
Also, my old players were incredibly clever when I threw Atropos at them. They called in ever favor, and hadn't been very kill-happy for a change and managed to leave all manner of magic users alive. They even had a lich at gunpoint by holding onto his last phylactery. They managed to get dozens of factions to work together on a project, arcane and divine (even somehow getting a minor demon lord to help) by crafting gems that when spread out would create a giant, temporary portal to the positive energy plane. They didn't even go into space. They just predicted where Atropos would crash, spread the gems out, and Atropos slam dunked himself right into the Positive Energy Plane, destroying himself.
I still am not sure how to calculate XP for killing a moon.
Amazing story an amazing win for all involved thanks for sharing
The answer to how much XP they get is either "yes" or none. If they get credit for the kill they instantly jump to 20, or they share the xp with everything that helped them directly or indirectly and everyone gets almost nothing.
What a great story! :D
I'd suggest you to transform all the PCs into solars (free will, lots of powrr, immortality and a nice place in some heaven of sorts for the weekends) as the divine kind of saying: "thanks for saving our asses... and followers... and the planet... and the rest!"
forget xp. killing a moon that is also a primordial should get them high immortal status (solar angel level), or a demi-god status
Just promote them to level 20, let them narrate their retirement, and start exposition for a new campaign.
"Why is everything so dark? Why are there so many monsters?"
"The people living there don't seem all that put out. Besides, you wanna be a hero or not?"
I think it's a perfectly valid if poorly worded question. A better way of putting it is ''how have the forces of good survived when outnumbered seemingly forever?''
How To Kill Atropus: Tell Demogorgon that he was talking shit about him.
Atropus in completely different league than Demogorgon tho. Demogorgon certainly is super powerful, and is able to kill most of the things that exist but not Atropus. Atropus is the embodiment of certain death unless you somehow flee him to another galaxy or get him to leave
to those who say dnd is dark n horrible, then Warhammer 40k is your utter nightmare XD
A Bruce Willis Armageddon scenario, with a positive energy bomb made with the aid of the Wind Dukes. The bomb must be delivered to the deepest point possible, the mouth, and may require some additional digging. You also have a deadline of safe detonation before the rogue moon approach the danger zone of dealing heavy damage to the planet. If your players are ahead of schedule, then just have the Atropus notice their plans and move faster for suspense.
Bonus points if you can have one or more of the characters stay behind to trigger the explosion due to the trigger malfunction, to protect the bomb since the Avatar of Atropus shows up to defeat them and force them detonate ahead of time, or even have the bomb require additional positive energy due to a miscalculation (presumably the soul energy of one or more 20th level characters).
"What is preventing the gods from destroying Atropus for good?"
Ed Greenwood.
To destroy Atropus, you need something more powerful than it is. Basically the trope "Summon Bigger Fish". And there are a few entities in D&D that would be able to deal with the dead world permanently. But only three spring readily to mind: Ao, the Overgod of Toril. Io, the ninefold dragon which is all, and possibly Anubis, as he has evolved way beyond the limits of godhood and is now the guardian of dead gods.
But yeah, you'd probably need to contact and convince an overgod of dealing with it. Which would be a whole campaign in itself.
Pandorym. Although then you would have to deal with Pandorym.
I'm gonna start calling this the Godzilla Gambit.
"Let them fight."
Or open a portal to the sun and blast it to smitherines
I would think such Overgod level beings are already aware of Atropus and are refusing to do anything about it. Because otherwise we are saying Atropus is stronger than them in some way as it is able to mislead them.
This is where Tarkin would really come in handy.
Nutbar McLoony you may fire when ready
"Why is there so much evil and darkness in D&D?"
Because in D&D you get to actually kick evil's butt and win. Real evil can't be defeated by polymorphing into a penguin, diving of a magic carpet and landing beak first in the face of a demon lord. But in D&D (at least at my table) that would - per rule of cool - do as many d6 falling damage as was dived - because I like creative fun and that's how my weird brain works. :P
If one were to create a portal to the Positive Energy Plane or link a portal to another portal placed over one of the Star Portals on the inner surface of the crystal inner shell, it would potentially be like a massive beam of radiance to blast Atropus with, or at least force Atropus to retreat in pain ("It burns us, Precious!") .
Why is the Dungeons and Dragons world so dark? Because picking lilies every day gets really boring...
"Atropals, almost common here"
_Guess I'll die_
"Guess I'll die"
That's not the last mistake you'll ever make, when Atropus is near, but it certainly would be the worst
Ah I did forget to mention how we 'killed' Atropus. Which was a mix of the options you mention. Gate into the Positive Energy Realm; we had our three level 20 wizards do a ritual to open such a portal at the cost of their lives. While at the same time unleashed a powerful arcane bomb at the 'core' of Atropus... the bomb was escorted by the rest of our party and well... you can imagine how we all fared as we unleashed the Arcane Bomb at the very last stand of our strengths. TPK... but we saved the world and the gods took our shattered souls into their realms at Atropus turned into mirco space dust.
Atropus sounds like the d&d version of the head of Unicron from Transformers. A devourer of worlds.
I can imagine the gods being less help than you'd think against Atropus. They might not be willing to set aside their differences and agree on a plan of action, or spend all their time arguing about who's job it is to do what, or pointing fingers about who's fault it is the threat detected sooner, etc, etc. You know, _politics._
I just figured out how to deal with atropus: rapid-fire warlocks at it. when they take fall damage, they can use hellish rebuke and target the planet. normally this wouldn't work since toril isn't a creature, but atropus is.
The first thing I thought of when I heard of Atropus was Dead Space, especially the plot of Dead Space 3; I imagine a cult of Atropus creating Marker-like objects to draw Atropus to Toril, and as It gets closer, the Cultist transform into ravenous Undead that herald Atropus's arrival...
For me it was greek mythology.
The three Sisters of Fate would basically weave our life stories like a tapestry. One would dye and measure the thread, one would weave it together and Atropus, the final sister, would cut the thread, and each thread would only be cut to signal the death of a corresponding individual.
One of the things that I like about the “Prime Mover” theory of Atropus’s origin, and how Atropus wants to become the prime mover again by reclaiming all the life it gave away to create the universe, is that it is ultimately futile. If Atropus succeeds, devours all life in the universe, and is resurrected as the prime mover, I think that the Mover would just recreate the universe again, starting the cycle. It’s like an anti-cosmic horror, the cosmic horror’s ultimate goal is about as futile as it is to defeat it.
It's goal being futile is only more horrifying if you ask me.
Finaly a good allinged use for the Death Star.
Rewatched about several dozen times. Still never gets old.
My current idea... battle to the core. Travel in a globe of invulnerability and Cast a 10th level reverse gravity at the epicentre.
A 20th level wizard is actually scarier than atropus.
There's evil everywhere so adventurers always have something to do.
Sounds like the Moon from Majora’s Mask got recreated by Warhammer 40k then thrown into D&D.
I seem to recall in the original Elder Evils, Atropus' backstory was that he was the original god/force/what have you that created the D&D multiverse, at the cost of his own life. The reason he's destroying worlds is because he figures that if he wipes out all life, there'll be no more faith to sustain the gods, starving them to death. And if the gods die, the multiverse dies, taking Atropus with it and giving him and end to his tormented existence.
For a while I was running a campaign where the players were trying to stop an evil necromancer from using a ritual to ascend to Demi-Godhood. From levels 1-10 they'd chase him around the world as he committed various mass murders to prime the pump, then at level 10 they would confront him in the middle of the ritual. Something would go wrong releasing the massive amount of negative energy that he had been holding, and it would attract Atropus. Unfortunately, it would also grab the attention of an Elder Evil that's kind of Atropus' opposite named Ragnorra. She's basically a positive energy cancer that travels the plane as a meteor. As they both moved closer and closer the world would begin to be covered in swirling vortexes of negative and positive energy, with living things becoming withered and rotten corpses one second, and the next exploding back into life and becoming grotesque blobs of flesh the next.
So everything was dying and regenerating at an insane rate that it's practically a small version of a chaotic plane. Sounds fun...
Very lovecraftian.
Currently writing a campaign where Atropus is approaching a planet, which caused a whole lot of problems
On the flip side of the coin you got the living comet Ragnorra that drowns out planets with positive energy.
Maybe that is why Atropus is kept around just in case they need to clean up her mess.
Glad someone remembered her, those two are my favorite elder evils
So you're saying that Atropus is a great vacation spot
For a lich maybe.
@@AJPickett shhh don't tell anyone. I actually use a fragment of Atropus in my campaign world. Meaning a couple of small shards landed on the planet and has corrupted the landscape. A lich or two may or may not be sharing a larger fragment as a phylactery.
Reminds me of the junji Ito story “Hellstar Remina” very cool, and very grim.
Ego Prime would give him a tussle, but if I had to get rid of him, one word: GALACTUS.....
Do you want zombie Galactus? Because that's how you get zombie Galactus. :P
I believe Atropus is the wandering mindless body of tharizdun operating off instinct.
Hmm, if your party has permission from whoever is in charge of Mount Celestia, they can cast Gate, with one portal being on/above Atropus' surface and the other being in the sea of holy water that is around Mount Celestia. Rinse and repeat until your nightmare planet is clean.
The Gods imprisoned Tharizdun then they can surely deal with this. But on second thought, certainly some Gods would benefit from an undead Toril and thus cause interference, while imo Orcus would be elevated tipping the blood war and cosmic balance. I suspect the Nine Hells are about to lose a host of future souls needed to fuel their armies in the Blood War. An interesting twist (subverting expectations) could be a team effort with certain evil factions.
This monster is something that would be great for the end of a very high level campaign.
5th Element is a D&D module!
When faced with a threat of this caliber, get elder evil on it. Undead god of destruction? Meet Pandorum. The god killer.
Used Atropus in a campaign once. World basically got completely fucked. Was a fun time.
I'm looking to do the same thing. One thing I'm trying to figure out is which kingdoms/cities can survive at least a while. Thay might be one.
@bryan diaz varela So Thay is fine.
Hook of a Homebrew campaign: doomsday is drawing near and Atropus is getting close to toril. Players must seek out and discover a new spell never cast before: true plane shift to plane shift an object the size of a planet. But the players have the ultimate choice of where to send it,, and ultimately who to Doom by doing so
Easy, the Abyss. Let it be Demogorgon's problem. I'm sure there will be no knock on consequences from performing such an action.
@@d00mg4ze Demogorgon may be the ruler of demon kind, but he only rules a couple of levels in the Abyss.
Worst place to send it in the Abyss? To Orcus.
Best place to send it in the abyss? As far down as you possibly can that isn't Orcuses home.
Best plane to send it in the multiverse? Either Carceri or the Demielemental plane of Vacuum. It's a tossup really.
Don't go 'round tonight,
It's bound to take your life,
*There's a bad moon on the rise!*
Atropus sounds like a gigantic rotting head and all the undead that inhabit it are like the organisms that gather on a corpse
I read into dnd demon lore before most everything else. You know it’s bad when even literal demons from hell aren’t even the worst thing that could come to get you
Use a portal to lure the Tarrasque onto the surface of Atropus. Might help, might just end up in a zombie Tarrasque.
As a dm that would be a win win scenario
@@Ekair42an undead tarrasque? to the positive energy plane with it!
To fight atropus id make the entirety of his body one massive dungeon where the party has to move through and annihilate certain guardian monsters, working down until they reach the center and battle an avatar of atropus.
You mean pretty much what the 3.5 Elder Evils Handbook did?
AJ Pickett your Lords of Ruin series once again serves up another helping of chaos, destruction, & horror. Thank you.
I feel like this is some endgame spelljammer shit and I am so on board
I'm planning to run two campaigns in the future.
My world purposefully does not have Gith. They are an unknown, never-before-seen creature. In the first campaign, they will arrive.
Thousands of them. Millions. They come seeking land, seeking a safe haven, and they will take it by any means necessary. This campaign is a Witcher 3 Wild hunt-style "stop the invasion from another realm". The Gith will say nothing of why they need this land at first, only that they are fleeing something and without it their people will die. Whether the Gith are pushed back through their portals, brought to their knees, or a peaceful resolution is, eventually, found... the bloodshed causes a giant eye to turn, ever so slowly, in the direction of my world. (A peaceful resolution will allow the Gith to reveal the true horror behind their flight from their homeland... and the entity that now stalks them.)
Campaign two takes place about a year after campaign 1. The world is still reeling from the war with the Gith when the first bodies begin to rise. It starts slowly, with the recently deceased, and a strange spec of red light in the sky, visible only at night time. A star, where no stars were before, perhaps? Then it slowly ramps up, until, about mid-campaign, that spec of light becomes visible during the daytime. Bodies aren't staying dead anymore, with about half of them rising again, feasting on the living. Until the end comes, and Atropus appears in the sky, the dark revelation dawning upon the people of this plane (and the Gith, if a peaceful resolution was reached), the horror stuck on their blood-covered faces as the tides of undead devour the world... unless the PCs can stop a planet, of course.
I doubt I'll ever have enough of a turnout for one full campaign of this, much less two, but it's nice to dream.
That sounds amazing, I'd love to be in it but I hope you get it going!
You can do it! My party is level 13 Rise of Tiamat, which I'm slowly introducing Atropus into. They just defeated Starspawn and Mindflayers in the Underdark, and the main guy trying to summon Tiamat might reveal he's doing it to stop Atropus. Hoping to set them up summon Tiamat herself, then convince her/overpower her and join forces to go battle in space.
"The instances of Evil Dead rising from profane places will become more & more frequent"
Are there any things like say, chainsaws & sawn-off shotguns in D&D?
If there are, they're certainly groovy.
S-mart
Gun slinger/artificer and if you're going to make a chainsaw why not make it magical and shoot lightning
@@gavinbillings6535 I like it!
The problem I see with sending Atropus to the positive energy plane is that you are taking a huge gamble. The abyss was created from basically a shard of pure order being thrown into limbo. This is pretty much the same concept with one exception, the positive energy plane is so much more important to the continued existence of mortals and most gods. Best case scenario Atropus dies. But it could cause all manner of things. I mean it could cause an abyss type situation creating some sort of neutral energy plane which interferes with magic or creates new types of magic etc.
Getting Atropus dead by involving any major plane, besides maybe the abyss, would most likely kill everyone anyway just slower then if they let Atropus do its thing.
That being said love is supposed to conquer all. So a party can make a portal over to Atropus give it a big hug and watch as it flies away into the vast void finally free of its teenage angst.
loyal traitor01 not many things not made out of positive energy or are constructs can survive there for long my best guess is the new plan would start out evil quickly turn then with the combined effort of all the plan's inhabitants positive energy (which to say is in abundance there is an understatement) will slowly seep in also it was a shard of pure evil
Constellate. Just one. Millions of points of radiant damage per round.
Suggested means to defeat Atropus.
1) Tattletale on Orcus to Demogorgon, and Graz'zt. In short, "Orcus is about to make an ENORMOUS stride forward and maybe pull all of a material plane into his layer of the Abyss. Drop whatever it is you're doing and kick his ass before this happens." Informing Dagon might also be prudent, given that this would likewise destroy the ocean as much as the land.
2) Beseech the Raven Queen, and Kelemvor for aid, given that the ultimate force of subverted death was manifesting itself. They'd likely be uniquely pissed off.
3) other than opening a portal to the Heart of the Positive Energy Plane, maybe try opening a portal directly to the Holy Water Sea of Celestia. Power-wash the fetid surface of Atropus in goodness-juice.
Atropus doesn't sound like a good place to build your vacation home.
On the other hand, the real state prices on must be pretty affordable
Unless you're Orcus
Another way of harnessing a vast amount of planar magic in order to send it into the plane of positive energy and annihilate it would be to go to Sigil or another such powerful planar nexus and somehow negotiate with the powerful denizens there that guard the portals to the positive energy plane to open a massive portal in the path of Atropus. This may mean you have to try to negotiate with the Lady of Pain herself though...and good luck with that!
Atropus to me is just a boogeyman, doesn't actually exist. That's the way I see it. Because if it does exists, the world would just end the same every campaign.
"You managed to convince the God of Justice that you are not guilty, as you are about to return to Toril, you notice: It's gone."
Atropus "aka" HellStar Remina's long lost sibling.
Easy solution. Submit to the will Atropus. Pray to the Gods for oblivion. Rinse. Repeat.
I love this intro!!! For me, evil and darkness is what I LOVE about D&D!!!
I prefer the idea that Atropos isn’t meant to be defeated. It is the slow encroachment of death that all mortals know looms on the horizon. The adventurers are in the world to find meaning and commit acts of heroism in the face of inevitable doom.
I respectfully disagree.
I prefer the idea that he _can_ be defeated, but it's going to be a hellish slog to do so.
It is an Eldritch Abomination that is still tangible, a petty primordial entity that suffers for it's hubris.
@@thegameknight8916 That is very valid and correct. :) I think it's just a matter of what kind of storytelling you prefer. thank you for replying and having me think on this!
I think both options are valid. Depends on what kind of game you wanna Play. If you wanna run a cosmic horror dark fantasy existential dread campaign, go for it, if you wanna run a super epic campaign where the heroes are able to fight off any evil, no matter how great, go for it. I personally plan in running one more of the first kind. In my campaign, I generally want to ask the question "how do the characters react to the inevitable?" So definetely an existential one. So for my purposes, I think its a great Idea to have this enemy be unkillable, because, even If there is a happy ending, it will only be a temporary one because they only changed its trajectory or something, and I just Love the concept of the characters knowing that it will inevitably come Back, even tho there is a positive conclusion
Love that Wizards are brough back Atropus and a few of the other elder evils for 5e
Well if orcus can probably walk freely as Atropus draws close, what about other demon lords? The devils? As prayers to the gods can no longer be heard, what about those to azmodeus and his devils? Could souls be sold to save the world? That would be an interesting twist
Orcus is specifically related to enthropy, being a sort of undead himself. Other fiends are alive. And for most of then hed chew off their avenue of exit, so they'd avoid the, pun, hell of it. Even Orcus would leave before the final stages. he would just be there to gang press and vacation
A stillborn god. Well, that is certainly horrible. I like the idea that it can literally only be destroyed by the Gods, and the only thing the players can do is to render it weakened enough for it to be wounded.
Maybe atropus is a living Pyhlactery for itself Essentially becoming the universes largest demilich
That’s pretty much how I run it. It’s also possible to completely destroy it, but the gods refuse to do so, because Atropus was originally the purest planets in the original multiverse (see: the Misty Isle, the Spaarkil, the Spelljammer, and the Broken Sphere). The gods want to hold Atropus at bay until they can reverse all of its death and save the original multiverse. But the entity that rules Atropus was the first lich in all of existence, and it will keep coming until it kills everything, or the gods give in and destroy it.
The World Born Dead is just the hostage factory of the creature that *invented* (but didn’t perfect) godhood.
Great concept, although, isn't a living phylactery kind of the same as just having a mortal body?
Just compact everyone into a stone and phase the stone into some random other multiverse in the far realm. Then corrupt one of the hyper powerful old ones there and manipulate it into placing the stone into the right spot so that when everyone leaves the stone you can just rebuild the material plane.
- totally not an oberinth or anything
So...to get rid of this, it’s time for a world-hopping Tarrasque hunt to Gate them there.
Epic quest: Beseech the Primodials (The seven lost gods or/and elemental lords) for help in sealing away Atropus for good. 5-7 stages of preparation involving retrieving lost artifacts, unearthing old places of elemental worship... something epic. Culminating in the adventuring party going to Atropus physically to confront the headless avatar. Not just a tank and spank but as the party fights the avatar they need to implant elemental resonating rods (granted as their boons from earlier stages) in the ground around the avatar. When defeated the elder evil will retreat physically, it is this action that backfires if the rods are in place shunting Atropus deep into the elemental chaos and binding him there.
Inject as much intrigue as one wants. Perhaps the night serpent is working with the elder evil, maybe instead of devouring Atropus he sets his eyes on the Sun... as intended all along. This would be an entire campaign for epic level characters.
Take a page from the Blood War playbook and pit (Elder) evil vs. (Elder) evil; feed as many negative Energy protections and haste buffs as you can to Holashner, The Hunger Below (Lords of Madness), then teleport it into Atropus. Then ignite the Black Bile with a bombardment of Stonefire (Shining South) meteorites, Air spells, and Meteor swarms.
I'm running the Witchlight module, after that I'm doing a modified Phandelver and the Shattered Obelisk Below.
Instead of the modules intended BBEG It's going to be Atropus that is summoned if the players don't prevent it in time, they know the stakes are high. I'm just reworking some stuff here and there.
I’m imagining something like a brethren moon from dead space.
Pretty much, except no limbs.
Not far off in many respects.
Time to invest in charisma and then ask it politely yet firmly to leave
Let's hope the dm allows it
@@carelesscorpse3556I would but I would also make them try to convince ME to make him leave
In my longest game Atropus was one of three supreme entities, the universe eater, it floats in from the negative energy plane and slowly erases the universe unlucky enough to receive it. Unfathomably powerful and completely ambivalent, if it was called into the world, campaign over, sorry guys you lost, the universe is dead. The final battle was actually against a Phane from the end of time that wanted to call Atropus into the world and begin the end of everything (thus ensuring it's own creation.)
Idigam Studios what were the other two
Atropus sounds like an undead version of Unicron...
This is bassicaly Orcus wet dream.... summoning this near Toril!
I'd LOVE more videos on the various Elder Evils! Some incredibly interesting campaign-forming info there. Awesome stuff, my man!
Good in the world, any world, rises up to the level of evil that exists there. While evil is widespread, good is intensly concentrated in people. It has the power to overthrow the evil around it, if only someone will care to exercise it
The Book of Vile Darkness would be a awesome video..lots of info for it👍🏼👍🏼💯
And as always awesome video💯
It is full of "adult themes", but it does have some of the best villains options.
Greenscyth22 AJ could do a long video on that book since it relates all manner of fiends, undead and other vile or in some cases god like elder evils 😈👍🏼👍🏼💯
My best guess is that Atropus wasn't full destroyed because he is a primordial, living embodiment of the very concept of death and entropy, and that his death would likewise weaken the very concept of death in reality, and upsettingthebalance between fundamentalprinciples of nature. On the surface, having life supercede death sounds like it isn't that bad, but is actually pretty horrible, as creatures that would normally die of natural causes would endure beyond their natural life by several decades, centuries, or even millennium, while the natural life energies saturating everything would cause birthrates to skyrocket, shortening developmental stages of embryos and fetuses to a few weeks instead of months and exponentially increasing instances of multiple births, like triplets, quintuplets, and octuplets. As life proliferates explosively, available living space will be rapidly encroached upon, and conflict will arise, but with death having less of a hold on reality, organisms would take grievous injury after grievous injury and simply will themselves back to physical fitness as the life energies in their bodies healed them almost constantly. And on an equally terrifying note, with life superseding death, even the dead, should they have had sufficient power in life, would be able to simply will themselves back to life, and those nearing death would be filled with vitality, but having knocked on death's door once already, seek to save off death's cold embrace by any means necessary, turning to dark, profane magic and rituals en masse.
Dungeons and Dragon worlds are pretty lite when you compare it to something like Thief World or Warhammer 40k. At least in D&D you can survive, there is that glimmer of hope.
My favorite explanation of Atropus is that is the Afterbirth of Creation.
Would a primordial entity not simply be reborn eventually from whatever natural forces created it to begin with. I bet that old ass ocean guy would know hes probably seen it happen.
Also that description of the apocalypse Reminds me of a dream I once had, there was this undead elderly mobster guy with bronzey green skin like he'd been embalmed and he had a really nice coat and there were these cultists that were killing people inorder to make a frankenstine's monster the size of a barn so me and this group of survivors kept getting dreams about this mountain of fleash that was supposed to bring about the end of the world or what was left of it but the thing just ended up being torn apart by its own weight and whole bunch of blood poured out.
Thats a normal dream right? Everybody has that one?
Dagon the old ass oceany guy (new official title).
I thought I should mention, I commissioned a setting agnostic version of Atropus on Dscryb! Look up the Dead Planetoid's Approach and On the Planet Born Dead if you want to see it!
Nice!
Tell John Wick that Atrropus kills dogs.
Atropus vs Library book.
Negative energy balances zealotry. Cats at midnight lack enough negative energy and chaos guides them. Order demands balances.
I have a one year campaign lined up with my current party and Atropos actually fits perfectly into it as the looming threat, great video!
Am I the only one thinking of Hellstar Remina by Junji Ito here?
First thing that came to mind.
This one really reminds me that The Riftwar Saga (by Raymond E. Feist) started as a TTRPG world. This is The Enemy.
I'm gonna posit that the gods aren't actually powerful enough to deal with Atropus. Maybe they just delay it every once in a long while, sending it far away/back in time every eon. Maybe it defines a kalpic cycle?
i too would like to thank your pateron suppoters for this
The only way to repel Atropus is to have all the beings of Toril stop fighting each other and start making love.
The sacrifice will certainly be noted by the gods (once they stop laughing)
*Adventurer is battling a Sea Hag and her Horde of Kuo Toa*
*Hears the Order*
*Looks to his enemy*
“I’d rather see the world end”
*continues fighting*
*pictures a succubus slow clapping in the most evil and malevolent way possible holding the book of vile darkness* @_@
I have an idea for a campaign featuring Atropus. In the final chapters, Chauntea, goddess of life, sacrifices herself to protect Toril from the undead schenanigans, and the players must deliver Selûne, goddess of light, to the core of Atropus, where she can destroy him. Even her sacrifice wouldn't be enough to kill him. Shar, utterly pissed at the death of both her daughter and kinda-maybe-sorta lover, appears, and, having taken Selûne and Chauntea's divine portfolios for herself, and with it some of their wisdom, surrenders her deific position to the players (after nearly killing them), and personally dragging Atropus off to hell.
What was that one elder evil, the 'meteorite" that's I think is nick-named the mother of monsters, it's a corrupted/warped positive energy font. What if you managed to smack that into Atropus? Would they cancel out? Or, you know, just "BOOM"?
Ragnorra is it's name I believe.
LunaraGateKeeper I'm guessing evil energy Snu Snu
Thanks AJ!! I now have a main “villain” for my FR campaign. One of my players doesn’t know much about her life before being forged into an Assassin. I think I may twist that into them preparing her body to become a vessel for the Herald of Atropus. A being that is trapped in a planar prison that shifts randomly through various prime worlds. His body destroyed he needs a vessel to make the call to his master. The Warden of the prison has been corrupted by the whispers of the Herald and is trying to free him... still working it out... I think this may work.
I can totally see a high level one-shot involving Atropus that plays out like the plot of Armageddon.
Just sayin...
im going to make one 1-20 based on this plot, basically using the aboletic soveregnity, some kuo toa from olleth, a lot of star spawns, and a bed infermed covenant of hags that make a pact with an aboleth in the first levels
Make it collide with a star disguised as a fertile lush planet through illusion.
A planetary scale Turn Undead.
A time bomb to freeze time around the planet forever.
Let the gods figure it out.
Illusion usually just straight up doesn't work on god afaik
@@masync183 lawyered XD
Love your work AJ! Can not get enough!
We accidentally released it from a time paradox in spelljammer.
so it was YOU!