Iuz's Citadel - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Iuz's Citadel

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
zombiegleemax
Sep 20, 2006 15:24:09 My campaign is heading toward it's climax. The party will be attacking Iuz in his Citadel. As far as I know there is not much detailed information about it (at least not enough). I have looked up everything from all the available sources that I found in the greyhawk index. I am looking for any ideas about how to go about designing this.

The party of 7 will be around 30th level. What I really need are ideas to make this Citadel a sinkhole of evil. I don't nessesarily need adversaries and defences to put in it (but idea are welcomed), but mainly the actual design and specifics about some of the rooms that ooze evil.

Any ideas on how to make this a climax to end all! Thanks
#2
ivid
Sep 21, 2006 2:12:35 Iuz has to go! Iuz has to go!:fight!:
#3
crag
Sep 21, 2006 17:18:36 Personally I like Iuz; maybe it is the visual of his ancient frail form being the embodiment of terror in flanaess. :D
#4
ripvanwormer
Sep 21, 2006 21:59:54 Iuz the Evil describes Iuz's palace. I suspect the City of Skulls adventure does as well.

I suspect the souls of those who worshipped Iuz in life will appear in his palace in Dorakaa after their deaths. He might trade some of them to the Abyssal lords in return for demonic servants, but I suspect that primarily he binds them to the skulls built into the walls of his capital city, where they can report everything they witness to their eternal master.
#5
ivid
Sep 22, 2006 3:46:03
Personally I like Iuz; maybe it is the visual of his ancient frail form being the embodiment of terror in flanaess. :D

Yeah, but... I like him better as the chuckling old man with the evil-looking eyes that greets my heroes mockingly as the arrive at the Inn of the Welcome Wench on a rainy night...

That new overlord-like thing doesn't fit him... ;)
#6
Mortepierre
Sep 22, 2006 14:34:14
That new overlord-like thing doesn't fit him...

Tsk! tsk! Still jealous, Ivid? :P
#7
ivid
Sep 23, 2006 8:05:19 :D Got me, Morte! If I ever manage to get my notes on that Ravenloft domain Rauxes together, you will see how much I reconcile with the overking, and how direly I punish poor Iuz...
#8
woobyluv
Sep 27, 2006 15:46:22 If you have access to the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil super adventure, try using "The Black Spike" of the Inner Fane as a basis for your Citadel. Obviously you will want to change stuff around but i think it serves as a good place to start.
#9
zombiegleemax
Oct 04, 2006 12:18:29 Thanks woobyluv, using the black spike is a great starting point for ideas. The PC's started their carreer in the RttToEE, this will bring back memories.

Any ideas on how a god would go about defending his palace from pesky adventurers?
#10
extempus
Oct 20, 2006 17:35:12
Iuz the Evil describes Iuz's palace. I suspect the City of Skulls adventure does as well.

The City of Skulls describes the Boneheart Citadel just north of the Palace of Iuz, but not the palace itself, as well as dungeons located below other structures in Dorakaa.
#11
zombiegleemax
Oct 28, 2006 0:27:01 I have always envisioned useing the HIGH CLERIST TOWER from the dragonlance adventures as an epic assult on an evil demi god. The tower is HUGE and plenty of places to investigate and set up encounters. It's a little old, the map that i have but it is awesome and something that Iuz could of had built. Damn the lay out is SO cool. So many possibilities.

sirat
#12
zombiegleemax
Nov 01, 2006 15:52:05
I have always envisioned useing the HIGH CLERIST TOWER from the dragonlance adventures as an epic assult on an evil demi god. The tower is HUGE and plenty of places to investigate and set up encounters. It's a little old, the map that i have but it is awesome and something that Iuz could of had built. Damn the lay out is SO cool. So many possibilities.

sirat

What book is that from?
#13
zombiegleemax
Nov 07, 2006 23:07:46 I believe It was a compendium of the original Dragon lance chronicles. I believe it was DL 5-8 or DL 9-12.
#14
Mortepierre
Nov 08, 2006 6:30:58 The map for the tower first appeared in DL8 Dragons of War. Later, it was reprinted for DLC2 Classic Volume II. T'was a work of art, truly.
#15
zombiegleemax
Mar 26, 2007 12:39:14 Any other ideas?
#16
elondir
Mar 26, 2007 14:27:05 His castle is made of skulls, and the road leading to it is either lined with skulls or paved with them. I imagine there will be lots of bodies in cages hanging from poles, crucifixion remnants, impaled bodies, and there will be lots of undead and demons lurking in the countryside surrounding it, and I envision that the weather is stormy with greenish red skies and constant lightning. What plants there are will be carnivorous. The air will absolutely stink with decay from the impaled corpses.

(Just for fun to show the PCs how far they've come since the campaign began, 3000 orcs are roughly EL20. Use the swarm descriptor to speed up play.) :D

Inside the castle will be his throne room, and his throne is made of skulls. It is possible he has warded it with epic protection spells to uberbuff himself. If he's not there, then you've got a massive dungeon crawl to undertake, with high level divinations blocked. Lots and lots of traps. Lots of monsters. Tough monsters. As in hordes of glabrezus. Red dragons. Lots of torture chambers and the like. Drain spouts/gutters filled with acid, decaying tissues, blood, bodily waste, etc. There will be assassins trailing the PCs.

The black spike idea is awesome, go with it. Put it in there somewhere. Throw in some demiplane dungeon levels while you're at it.

Iuz will not be alone. He's CR 36 but the guy has huge armies at his command. When the PC's finally get to him, throw some epic tanar'ri in the room with him as lieutenants. Maybe even another demon lord. Make this fight a super tough one but let them scratch by on a thread. CR gets more or less thrown out the window at epic, so be careful how you balance the fight.

I hope it goes good for you and your players!
#17
Mulhull
Mar 31, 2007 8:23:43 Exactly what stats will you be using for Iuz? The ones in the dragon mag with him in it? It varies vastly from his 2nd Ed ones, where he only has about 150 hitpoints, in the dragon magazine article he has about 500.

And will you be taking his soulgem into account, the one in the Abyss he has? Or will you just say if he dies in the citadel, he's dead forever?
#18
thanael
Mar 31, 2007 9:12:38 Well you can't quite compare 2E hitpoints to 3E ones.

I suggest using the stats from dicefreaks.
#19
Mulhull
Mar 31, 2007 9:29:52
Well you can't quite compare 2E hitpoints to 3E ones.

I suggest using the stats from dicefreaks.

I think we can compare hitpoints, sure some of the rules are incompatible, but hit points are hit points and are the same in both versions, you lose them when you get injured, he's got a lot more in 3E.
#20
elondir
Mar 31, 2007 9:37:21 Reroll his hit points. He will have more hit dice becuase I think he has class levels over 9, and his constitution bonus will be higher now.
#21
ripvanwormer
Mar 31, 2007 14:12:17
I think we can compare hitpoints,

You can't, because just about everything has more hit points, and characters can do a lot more damage. Apples and oranges.
#22
zombiegleemax
Apr 05, 2007 9:46:19 Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming. My plan is for this to be a battle of attrition, that is the only way to really challange an epic level party.

I am using the stats from the Dragon article as the basis for him, and then making some modifications (+5 levels of cleric and changing a few feats). I used the stats from dicefreaks for ideas.

As for his soul gem. If killed on the prime material plane he will be banished from it and will reform in the abyss. That way he will be just like every other god, still some influence but not present.

The party is going to attempt to destroy his Soul Husk 1st, this will lower his divine rank some.
#23
Mulhull
Apr 06, 2007 5:40:17
You can't, because just about everything has more hit points, and characters can do a lot more damage. Apples and oranges.

Not as far as strength in concerned in 3E, in 2E a 22 strength let you do +10 damage (and I liked it that way)
#24
Mulhull
Apr 06, 2007 5:42:37
The party is going to attempt to destroy his Soul Husk 1st, this will lower his divine rank some.

What are the soul husks exactly? Are where did he get them? I thought they're in a cave somewhere in the howling hills.
#25
zombiegleemax
Apr 06, 2007 8:17:12
What are the soul husks exactly? Are where did he get them? I thought they're in a cave somewhere in the howling hills.

Yes they are in the Howling hills. I'm not sure what they are in cannon, but in my game they contain the souls of his dead followers giving him more divine ranks as they fill up.
#26
zombiegleemax
Aug 27, 2007 16:12:25 Any more ideas on his Citadel?
#27
maldin
Aug 28, 2007 13:08:54 Rick "Duicarthan" and I have our own theory as to the origin of the Soul Husks. Check out the brand new Oerth Journal #22 for our article where we mention it.
(Although it looks like you may have to wait until Sept 1st to download it because of bandwidth issues)

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
#28
rob_douglas
Aug 28, 2007 16:52:40 First of all, this is worth a read if you are going after Iuz:

http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=136

Also, as for the Soul Husks, there are 9 of them, and they are located in a cave in the Howling Hills, and guarded by an army of demons. Now you could argue some are gone after the events with the Crook of Rao, or that they were replaced/protected by Iuz's power there. In any case, destroying the Soul Husks is hard. I was planning to make each Soul Husk a Hunefer, from the Epic Level Handbook:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/hunefer.htm

Somehow Iuz learned how to suck divine energy from these beings and turned them into that. Destroying them should be a formidable task. The more you destroy, the weaker Iuz gets. He will probably show up during that fight, but run away when you destroy enough of them. Then you can track him back to his citadel, which is also his personal domain. Weakened, he will have less divine control over the area, so that will help.

ROB
#29
maldin
Aug 29, 2007 14:00:17
I was planning to make each Soul Husk a Hunefer, from the Epic Level Handbook...

Clearly great minds think alike.
Since the OJ webpage is temporarily down, I put our article up on my website at http://melkot.com/mysteries/twincat-mech.html
Might still be some transcription errors, but there you have it. Therein we also reveal who the hunefers originally were before their transformation. ;)

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
#30
rob_douglas
Aug 31, 2007 9:42:16 Cool.

My take was different, but same result - and I like yours better. I was using Greyhawk Ruins, as an Epic adventure, and there is a mummy king and queen in there. I made them Suel Hunefers, and decided they were the result of one of Zagyg's early experiments with capturing and stealing power. Then I thought Iuz, after being trapped by Zagyg, learned the secret and used it himself - but I couldn't decide who the Husks were, and in my version, Iuz was powerful but not a demigod yet when he was imprisoned. So I never loved it....

ROB
#31
maldin
Aug 31, 2007 11:05:52 While the whole story up to the actual unleashing of the ID/RoCF was mine, up to the point where Ilkben and company get caught up in their own arcane annihilation... I must confess that the idea to have them become hunefers, and then use them as the Soul Husks, was Duicarthan's. I loved it right away! It was a brilliant piece of canon-weaving.

Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Sep 20, 2006 15:24:09	My campaign is heading toward it's climax. The party will be attacking Iuz in his Citadel. As far as I know there is not much detailed information about it (at least not enough). I have looked up everything from all the available sources that I found in the greyhawk index. I am looking for any ideas about how to go about designing this. The party of 7 will be around 30th level. What I really need are ideas to make this Citadel a sinkhole of evil. I don't nessesarily need adversaries and defences to put in it (but idea are welcomed), but mainly the actual design and specifics about some of the rooms that ooze evil. Any ideas on how to make this a climax to end all! Thanks
#2 ivid Sep 21, 2006 2:12:35	Iuz has to go! Iuz has to go!:fight!:
#3 crag Sep 21, 2006 17:18:36	Personally I like Iuz; maybe it is the visual of his ancient frail form being the embodiment of terror in flanaess. :D
#4 ripvanwormer Sep 21, 2006 21:59:54	Iuz the Evil describes Iuz's palace. I suspect the City of Skulls adventure does as well. I suspect the souls of those who worshipped Iuz in life will appear in his palace in Dorakaa after their deaths. He might trade some of them to the Abyssal lords in return for demonic servants, but I suspect that primarily he binds them to the skulls built into the walls of his capital city, where they can report everything they witness to their eternal master.
#5 ivid Sep 22, 2006 3:46:03	Personally I like Iuz; maybe it is the visual of his ancient frail form being the embodiment of terror in flanaess. :D Yeah, but... I like him better as the chuckling old man with the evil-looking eyes that greets my heroes mockingly as the arrive at the Inn of the Welcome Wench on a rainy night... That new overlord-like thing doesn't fit him... ;)
#6 Mortepierre Sep 22, 2006 14:34:14	That new overlord-like thing doesn't fit him... Tsk! tsk! Still jealous, Ivid? :P
#7 ivid Sep 23, 2006 8:05:19	:D Got me, Morte! If I ever manage to get my notes on that Ravenloft domain Rauxes together, you will see how much I reconcile with the overking, and how direly I punish poor Iuz...
#8 woobyluv Sep 27, 2006 15:46:22	If you have access to the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil super adventure, try using "The Black Spike" of the Inner Fane as a basis for your Citadel. Obviously you will want to change stuff around but i think it serves as a good place to start.
#9 zombiegleemax Oct 04, 2006 12:18:29	Thanks woobyluv, using the black spike is a great starting point for ideas. The PC's started their carreer in the RttToEE, this will bring back memories. Any ideas on how a god would go about defending his palace from pesky adventurers?
#10 extempus Oct 20, 2006 17:35:12	Iuz the Evil describes Iuz's palace. I suspect the City of Skulls adventure does as well. The City of Skulls describes the Boneheart Citadel just north of the Palace of Iuz, but not the palace itself, as well as dungeons located below other structures in Dorakaa.
#11 zombiegleemax Oct 28, 2006 0:27:01	I have always envisioned useing the HIGH CLERIST TOWER from the dragonlance adventures as an epic assult on an evil demi god. The tower is HUGE and plenty of places to investigate and set up encounters. It's a little old, the map that i have but it is awesome and something that Iuz could of had built. Damn the lay out is SO cool. So many possibilities. sirat
#12 zombiegleemax Nov 01, 2006 15:52:05	I have always envisioned useing the HIGH CLERIST TOWER from the dragonlance adventures as an epic assult on an evil demi god. The tower is HUGE and plenty of places to investigate and set up encounters. It's a little old, the map that i have but it is awesome and something that Iuz could of had built. Damn the lay out is SO cool. So many possibilities. sirat What book is that from?
#13 zombiegleemax Nov 07, 2006 23:07:46	I believe It was a compendium of the original Dragon lance chronicles. I believe it was DL 5-8 or DL 9-12.
#14 Mortepierre Nov 08, 2006 6:30:58	The map for the tower first appeared in DL8 Dragons of War. Later, it was reprinted for DLC2 Classic Volume II. T'was a work of art, truly.
#15 zombiegleemax Mar 26, 2007 12:39:14	Any other ideas?
#16 elondir Mar 26, 2007 14:27:05	His castle is made of skulls, and the road leading to it is either lined with skulls or paved with them. I imagine there will be lots of bodies in cages hanging from poles, crucifixion remnants, impaled bodies, and there will be lots of undead and demons lurking in the countryside surrounding it, and I envision that the weather is stormy with greenish red skies and constant lightning. What plants there are will be carnivorous. The air will absolutely stink with decay from the impaled corpses. (Just for fun to show the PCs how far they've come since the campaign began, 3000 orcs are roughly EL20. Use the swarm descriptor to speed up play.) :D Inside the castle will be his throne room, and his throne is made of skulls. It is possible he has warded it with epic protection spells to uberbuff himself. If he's not there, then you've got a massive dungeon crawl to undertake, with high level divinations blocked. Lots and lots of traps. Lots of monsters. Tough monsters. As in hordes of glabrezus. Red dragons. Lots of torture chambers and the like. Drain spouts/gutters filled with acid, decaying tissues, blood, bodily waste, etc. There will be assassins trailing the PCs. The black spike idea is awesome, go with it. Put it in there somewhere. Throw in some demiplane dungeon levels while you're at it. Iuz will not be alone. He's CR 36 but the guy has huge armies at his command. When the PC's finally get to him, throw some epic tanar'ri in the room with him as lieutenants. Maybe even another demon lord. Make this fight a super tough one but let them scratch by on a thread. CR gets more or less thrown out the window at epic, so be careful how you balance the fight. I hope it goes good for you and your players!
#17 Mulhull Mar 31, 2007 8:23:43	Exactly what stats will you be using for Iuz? The ones in the dragon mag with him in it? It varies vastly from his 2nd Ed ones, where he only has about 150 hitpoints, in the dragon magazine article he has about 500. And will you be taking his soulgem into account, the one in the Abyss he has? Or will you just say if he dies in the citadel, he's dead forever?
#18 thanael Mar 31, 2007 9:12:38	Well you can't quite compare 2E hitpoints to 3E ones. I suggest using the stats from dicefreaks.
#19 Mulhull Mar 31, 2007 9:29:52	Well you can't quite compare 2E hitpoints to 3E ones. I suggest using the stats from dicefreaks. I think we can compare hitpoints, sure some of the rules are incompatible, but hit points are hit points and are the same in both versions, you lose them when you get injured, he's got a lot more in 3E.
#20 elondir Mar 31, 2007 9:37:21	Reroll his hit points. He will have more hit dice becuase I think he has class levels over 9, and his constitution bonus will be higher now.
#21 ripvanwormer Mar 31, 2007 14:12:17	I think we can compare hitpoints, You can't, because just about everything has more hit points, and characters can do a lot more damage. Apples and oranges.
#22 zombiegleemax Apr 05, 2007 9:46:19	Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming. My plan is for this to be a battle of attrition, that is the only way to really challange an epic level party. I am using the stats from the Dragon article as the basis for him, and then making some modifications (+5 levels of cleric and changing a few feats). I used the stats from dicefreaks for ideas. As for his soul gem. If killed on the prime material plane he will be banished from it and will reform in the abyss. That way he will be just like every other god, still some influence but not present. The party is going to attempt to destroy his Soul Husk 1st, this will lower his divine rank some.
#23 Mulhull Apr 06, 2007 5:40:17	You can't, because just about everything has more hit points, and characters can do a lot more damage. Apples and oranges. Not as far as strength in concerned in 3E, in 2E a 22 strength let you do +10 damage (and I liked it that way)
#24 Mulhull Apr 06, 2007 5:42:37	The party is going to attempt to destroy his Soul Husk 1st, this will lower his divine rank some. What are the soul husks exactly? Are where did he get them? I thought they're in a cave somewhere in the howling hills.
#25 zombiegleemax Apr 06, 2007 8:17:12	What are the soul husks exactly? Are where did he get them? I thought they're in a cave somewhere in the howling hills. Yes they are in the Howling hills. I'm not sure what they are in cannon, but in my game they contain the souls of his dead followers giving him more divine ranks as they fill up.
#26 zombiegleemax Aug 27, 2007 16:12:25	Any more ideas on his Citadel?
#27 maldin Aug 28, 2007 13:08:54	Rick "Duicarthan" and I have our own theory as to the origin of the Soul Husks. Check out the brand new Oerth Journal #22 for our article where we mention it. (Although it looks like you may have to wait until Sept 1st to download it because of bandwidth issues) Denis, aka "Maldin" Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
#28 rob_douglas Aug 28, 2007 16:52:40	First of all, this is worth a read if you are going after Iuz: http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=136 Also, as for the Soul Husks, there are 9 of them, and they are located in a cave in the Howling Hills, and guarded by an army of demons. Now you could argue some are gone after the events with the Crook of Rao, or that they were replaced/protected by Iuz's power there. In any case, destroying the Soul Husks is hard. I was planning to make each Soul Husk a Hunefer, from the Epic Level Handbook: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/hunefer.htm Somehow Iuz learned how to suck divine energy from these beings and turned them into that. Destroying them should be a formidable task. The more you destroy, the weaker Iuz gets. He will probably show up during that fight, but run away when you destroy enough of them. Then you can track him back to his citadel, which is also his personal domain. Weakened, he will have less divine control over the area, so that will help. ROB
#29 maldin Aug 29, 2007 14:00:17	I was planning to make each Soul Husk a Hunefer, from the Epic Level Handbook... Clearly great minds think alike. Since the OJ webpage is temporarily down, I put our article up on my website at http://melkot.com/mysteries/twincat-mech.html Might still be some transcription errors, but there you have it. Therein we also reveal who the hunefers originally were before their transformation. ;) Denis, aka "Maldin" Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
#30 rob_douglas Aug 31, 2007 9:42:16	Cool. My take was different, but same result - and I like yours better. I was using Greyhawk Ruins, as an Epic adventure, and there is a mummy king and queen in there. I made them Suel Hunefers, and decided they were the result of one of Zagyg's early experiments with capturing and stealing power. Then I thought Iuz, after being trapped by Zagyg, learned the secret and used it himself - but I couldn't decide who the Husks were, and in my version, Iuz was powerful but not a demigod yet when he was imprisoned. So I never loved it.... ROB
#31 maldin Aug 31, 2007 11:05:52	While the whole story up to the actual unleashing of the ID/RoCF was mine, up to the point where Ilkben and company get caught up in their own arcane annihilation... I must confess that the idea to have them become hunefers, and then use them as the Soul Husks, was Duicarthan's. I loved it right away! It was a brilliant piece of canon-weaving. Denis, aka "Maldin" Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com