I'm getting ready to run my first epic game, and I am looking for any tips, insights, ideas, or just random other feedback.
Background:
At the beginning of everything, before time, the gods, and even the multiverse, there was Limbo; Chaos, the ever shifting void of nothingness. Eventually, a shift in chaos led to something new showing up, consciousness. At first this consciousness was small, almost nonexistent. In a turn of events that created history, Limbo appeared to be susceptible to consciousness.
This first consciousness grew and evolved, slowly giving form to the earliest creations in Limbo. Eventually this one consciousness spawned many, each expanding and spawning more until another development happened, sentience.
Where consciousness dabbled in the manipulation of Limbo, sentience excelled. Consciousness and sentience formed a world and took upon themselves bodies. Animals appeared, races appeared, and mankind stepped into existence. The sentience of mankind searched for something more, something grander, and gods were born of Limbo, twin brothers to rule existence.
For a while things went well, mankind advanced and the gods sheltered them. Jealousy eventually crept in, and the weaker of the brothers sought to take the power of his brothers. He used his influence to spread the idea that his brother did now exist, causing the combined might of sentience to weaken the stronger brother. The weaker brother continued to pursue his agenda, pushing science and reason as he weeded out thought of the divine and supernatural. He didn't realize until it was too late that he was destroying himself as well.
When the stronger brother fell, it caused the destruction of their world, as limbo flooded into reality to reclaim that which it had birthed. The existence that had once been, was destroyed, nothing but a few crumbs littering the endless void.
Fast forward a very long time:
The current multiverse has formed in similar fashion, but much more varied and robust than the last as it was built partially upon the death throes of the past. The weaker brother, tainted by so long alone, has decided to end all existence. He has begun slowly pulling together the remnants of his world, planning to utilize their strange corrupt energies to destroy the current multiverse.
Enter the players and current storyline:
The players are all 25th level. The current gods are having a conference in their neutral city (which I have yet to name and finish designing). The players have been drafted by various gods to serve as their heralds during this meeting.
During the meeting, the fabric of reality around the city is going to be torn, releasing a monstrosity that no one has ever seen, one which seems immune to diving intervention. The tear in reality allows beings from several different planes to pour in during the chaos. The players are going to be the only heralds that survive the ordeal.
Each god blames the attack on the others, and the heralds are drafted as a group representing all of the gods. They are charged with finding out who staged the attack so that justice can be done.
I don't have time to fill in the rest of the story right now, but I'll post it when I can.
And the rest of the story:
This is going to be a multi-planar game. The characters start off by investigating the gods to see if they can figure out who is responsible for the attack on the meeting. More attacks continue to happen, and seem to happen the most when the characters are around.
Eventually they figure out that only two gods have known every time they went somewhere. There is The All High, the true neutral overdeity who is basically the god that other gods worship. He is fate and the one who holds the current multiverse together. Then there is the keeper of secrets, the lorekeeper of the multiverse who scours the worlds and records everything in existence. He is also known as the dreaming god because he is the only one that sleeps, a task he undertakes to scour the dream realm for more information.
The characters should rightly suspect the Keeper of Secrets. When confronted, the keeper fights back for a bit, but doesn't seem to be able to bring all his might to bear. The players discover that the 'keeper' is actually an entity that is currently controlling the keeper's body. The real keeper is imprisoned in the realm of dreams.
In a move completely against his normal character, the Dramdaus (The Demon Lord, the most powerful evil deity in my world) offers to be the patron of the group while they hunt down whoever has kidnapped the keeper. He has been studying the creatures responsible for the attacks, and believes he can assist the characters if they can gather more information on this foe.
The Realm of Dreams:
Similar to limbo, this realm is shaped and molded by consciousness and sentience. What no one knows is that the realm of dreams is older than the current multiverse. The realm of dreams was in existence before the past multiverse was destroyed, and it holds many secrets. Stray dreams and fragmented memories from the past reality still float about the realm of dreams. While examining such dreams and memories, the keeper was attacked and imprisoned by the surviving brother deity from the past. He possessed the keeper in order to gain information on the current multiverse.
The party eventually finds the keeper and frees him from the realm of dreams, learning about their real enemy in the process. They discover that they must travel to limbo and defeat this enemy. The deities have no power over the remnants of this past reality, because their very existence is tied to the energy of the current multiverse.
Dramdaus presents the characters with a potion that will protect them against the effects of Limbo. In reality is transforms each of them into a pseudonatural creature (epic level handbook). This was an experiment on the Demon Lord's part. He knows a thing about clinging on after death and destruction, and realizes that the only way to truly defeat this enemy is to incorporate the remnants of the previous existence into the current multiverse. Since the gods cannot do this, he in effect turns the players into gods themselves, but bonding them with the energy of the previous existence.
At this point, they have to brave limbo, defeat the surviving twin, and begin the process of incorporating the pieces of destroyed reality into the current reality.
And thus ends the game, with the players having made it to godhood.