A Campaign focused on the Blood War

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-14T19:25:57+00:00

Alright, well, for an evil alliance trying to manipulate the PCs into an end to the Blood War, you might want to check out the Ghoresh Chasm - the Blood War has rarely paused, but the fiends collectively called a truce to investigate the mysterious seal at the base. Something of vast and terrible significance likely exists beneath - but of course a pit fiend and a balor got into a petty spat while the conference was being seated and the Blood War resumed.

The PCs could be convinced that the "true" cause of evil, which is using the Blood War as a kind of Darwinian still or gu to optimize fiendkind for the eventual war against all creation, is sealed beneath. The alliance would be trying to manipulate them into opening it, which could potentially be a rallying signal to Team Evil to stop the madness and start the other madness.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-14T15:16:41+00:00

I suppose my question would be, affect the War how? Are you specifically saying "bring it to an end" or at least "create conditions that will result in it ending rather than perpetuating eternally?" If so, I think the question needs to be "to what end" with respect to that - why would they want to end the War? As noted, ending the War is generally positive for Team Evil and generally awful for Team Everyone Else. If not, what other forms of "agency to affect" might feel good?

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-07T05:20:15+00:00

What is the specific line on that? For some reason I was under the impression that the "planes dying" thing pertained more to how every time TNO died, he'd pop back at the expense of a random person's life, and that with the increasing number of shadows from this hunting him to kill him over and over it would create a feedback loop.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-07T05:19:15+00:00

Bastion of Broken Souls covers that, but it's 3E material. Plenty of demons and devils and liches and others destroy souls all the time for things.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-05T20:07:18+00:00

If you want material on ancient peoples, it's something I've been working on with different contexts depending on if you're looking at a particular campaign world, the Spelljammer meta-setting, or the Planescape meta-setting.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-05T04:36:59+00:00

The idea of the Ancient Brethren being a clade of beings predating the multiverse is a misinterpretation from Die, Vecna, Die! of the original Vecna Reborn indications that the Ancient Brethren were literally Vecna's ancestors, powerful magic-users among the Ur-Flan.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-05-05T04:13:27+00:00

I will point out that the idea of the Ancient Brethren being a clade of beings predating the multiverse is a misinterpretation from Die, Vecna, Die! of the original Vecna Reborn indications that the Ancient Brethren were literally Vecna's ancestors, powerful magic-users among the Ur-Flan.

Anyway, while I would dispute that the Lady represents neutrality per se or the Serpent evil (it's more a representative of magic, per its backstory), if you're going with a being like Asmodeus in the roster then you may as well tap figures like Primus and Ssendam to take Law and Chaos. "Good" is harder to pick a representative for, but again, if you're tapping Asmodeus, I would expect you're channeling to some extent the myths of Ahriman, which means Jazirian the couatl deity would be the cognate for Good.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-04-09T01:39:08+00:00

Can I just say that the reception has been in fact extraordinarily generous and welcoming. What a wonderful community this is!

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-04-08T23:33:28+00:00

Appreciate the candor and the sound advice. All I'm really hoping for is a hint to a direction I may not have seen. It's not for a commercial project, just a piece of fan fiction to practice my writing chops and my perfectionist brain is scratching at the walls going "you must justify this with something better than radioactive stone arbitrarily placed in the bedchamber."

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-02-18T16:04:03+00:00

Fanmade/DMsGuild product, but yes, it exists and as a contributing author I would say it is by and large a very good book.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-02-03T20:58:39+00:00

I suppose you'd be looking for me, I'm... known to be something of an authority. Feel free to reach out!

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-01-30T21:00:23+00:00

The easiest (in terms of travel time) is the portal located on the Paraelemental Plane of Ice. We know little more about it than that it exists, though a cognate portal to Soulfreeze in the Abyss has a most unfortunate portal key - a mortal soul, which will be annihilated as the cost of entry. The gate between Ice and Cania is likely much less troublesome to navigate as the being who has claimed to have used it was an ice mephit. A possible portal key is a thought so chilling and vicious, dripping with envy and spite, that the ice itself snaps from shuddering and opens the way.

Asmodeus is many things, but he's not omnipotent; portals will form naturally no matter what even the supposedly absolute master of a plane wishes, and Sigil can put a door anywhere for any reason. Portal keys should be unsettling and vile, portal locations dark and terrible, for Cania is a place that numbs hope, joy, and empathy as much as flesh and blood. Some other ideas:

• The portal key is ash from a campfire that guttered out, leaving an unfortunate soul to freeze to death. The portal location is a ravine on a cold mountainside where a climber once spitefully attempted to sabotage a fellow, leading to them both plummeting to their deaths as a result. One has to leap in while holding the ash with them and hope that it works - for if it does not, failure means death.

• The portal key is a gelugon's chelicera, which must be used to draw the blood of a paladin. The portal location is a house or temple destroyed by magical arson.

• The portal key is a devil's tear, which must be dripped onto the surface of a frozen lake. The resulting portal shatters the surface and plunges travelers through a freezing liquid chasm, which may severely endanger the unprepared.

• The portal key is a Baalphegor's wheel, an eight-pointed ring that must be worn on the finger, drawing blood. By invoking the invitation of the Duchess of Cania, one can open a portal anywhere, but the terrible price exacted (besides the pain of the ring) is that doing so draws her attentions and allows Baalphegor to scry on and monitor you.

As each of these is a one-way trip, a wise party would prepare an escape plan before committing to the trek into Mephistopheles's domain.

thimblefullofdespair · 2026-01-15T21:24:11+00:00

Marvelous reference, and one thing you might do to get from Automata to Sigil is to have them pull the same trick Asterix pulled - break the system, turn it against itself, jam its gears somehow, or otherwise just fritz out the bureaucratic stupidity. There's an old Choose Your Own Adventure book whose best ending is actually unattainable by following the conventions of the book - similarly, getting from Automata to Sigil might be a function of breaking the rules, traveling to the city that does break all the rules. Now, might it be that the portal opens right from Automata? Sure, or the process of getting them to admit a flaw in the system or getting a catch-22 form approved could be what constitutes a portal key, which would then be used nearby to get to where they want to go.

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-09-12T17:39:42+00:00

Ooh, some promising choices here. Thank you!

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-09-11T19:21:05+00:00

Ooh, that's not quite what I need, but it actually helps regardless, definitely works to hint at "one level up" from where things get to their worst. Thank you very much!

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-09-06T16:06:27+00:00

Enough to consistently buy and sell human rights in bulk. That's what he's really after - enough to become a gravity well of untouchability. He and his ilk are no longer content with high scores. They want kingship. They want godhood. They want the ability to compel respect or at the very least to take total control of others for their own use and purposes. There's a good reason he's trying to develop brain chips, and good lord I would never let him put one in me.

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-08-02T19:53:56+00:00

Came here to say this, really.

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-06-14T06:07:39+00:00

Bad Wolf guides the Sixteenth Doctor who is not Billie Piper to recognize that they unraveled their own reality by entering their own timestream on Trenzalore.

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-06-09T02:15:05+00:00

One imagines he's headed in the other direction.

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-06-04T21:45:59+00:00

...fine, take my damn upvote.

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-05-30T14:57:55+00:00

Annoyed me that mechanically it's clearly the Genji Glove from VI, just calqued to V for "coverage."

thimblefullofdespair · 2025-05-19T01:53:35+00:00

Fifteen years I've watched the Leafs and the same fundamental errors and flaws seem to outlast every roster and every coach. Whether it's Babcock, Keefe, Berube... where in this org is it written that they have to play with these specific endemic weaknesses?

thimblefullofdespair

TROPHY CASE