Draining a druid grove

[Entessa]

My players will put a draining gem in the middle of the druidic stones and start to leech his power.

1) Who are the defenders? I was suggested the following by Unoriginal:

First responders: the local spirits, monsters and people living there who would object to the life essence being drained.
Second responders: anyone who keeps tabs on the activitis of Kazgaroth and/or Bhaalspawns, like outsiders or anti-Bhaal organisations.
Third responders: gods, other entities and organisations that want to keep evil from winning and keep the world away from evil's clutches.


If I were to follow the answer above, I could go with:

I would say Driad and nymph would be the first answerer. Maybe some druid.
Second: harpists, they are always everywhere.
Third responders: Dragons. But sent by who, which colour and how many?



2) They are doing it for the God Kazgaroth, but Kazgaroth doesn't care about the gem, only about sending a message that he is still alive and as annoying as it can be. Could an adversarial God be informed, and if yes, would a Solar be enough against a team made of one demigod and 5 high level humans?

3) After everything that has transpired, considering that the gem was made from the essence of murder, would new "inhabitants start to habit there"? I'm curious what would start to inhabit a drained and decayed druid grove and in how much time.

[Psyren]

Third responders: gods, other entities and organisations that want to keep evil from winning and keep the world away from evil's clutches.

Would draining one grove really provoke a multi-deity response? How does draining a single druid grove of power threaten the entire world? I could see draining something particularly singular like a Tree of Mana or the Feywild/Arborea itself or something, but druid groves should be all over the place.

[LibraryOgre]

This is more or less the plot of Darkwell, by Doug Niles. Down to it being Bhaal responsible (Kazgoroth got killed off in Darkwalker on Moonshaes).

The first responders are going to the druids of, and allied to, the grove itself, and/or any anti-Bhaal groups monitoring this situation..
From there, it will spread through their network of allies and mercenaries... the Harpers, political organizations (like, say, the King of Corwell). As the news spreads, you're likely to attract any anti-Bhaal groups who didn't already know, and random adventurers out for XP and treasure.

[Leon]

Undead are the obvious things to start in a zone drained of life but aberrations would fit well in ~ possibly a greater creature lairing beneath and letting lesser creatures roam the surface. Angry trees/ other natural but hostile leaning creatures would work well if the location was damaged but not destroyed.

[Entessa]

Would draining one grove really provoke a multi-deity response? How does draining a single druid grove of power threaten the entire world? I could see draining something particularly singular like a Tree of Mana or the Feywild/Arborea itself or something, but druid groves should be all over the place.

I'm still undecided if there should be a multi-deity response. Kazgaroth is caged inside a plane to not let anyone go in and kill him, but he can try to exert his influence by choosing someone to devour the druidic groves.

The issue that you rightfully point is that there are many drudic groves in the world, so probably, the best option to not make deity come in is to tempt the player into draining it, without being a deity "mission" that makes other deity come in.

Okay two questions:

- if the player drains the grove and consumes the jewels with the life of the grove, what should he get? I'm talking about high level gameplay.

- what if the player gifts the jewel with the drained grove to kazgaroth?

This is more or less the plot of Darkwell, by Doug Niles. Down to it being Bhaal responsible (Kazgoroth got killed off in Darkwalker on Moonshaes).

The first responders are going to the druids of, and allied to, the grove itself, and/or any anti-Bhaal groups monitoring this situation..
From there, it will spread through their network of allies and mercenaries... the Harpers, political organizations (like, say, the King of Corwell). As the news spreads, you're likely to attract any anti-Bhaal groups who didn't already know, and random adventurers out for XP and treasure.

For the new to be spreading, the draining should be long.

OR

Kazgaroth may have tasked someone else to do it, and that someone was seen near the grove and has made the inhabitants suspicious

Undead are the obvious things to start in a zone drained of life but aberrations would fit well in ~ possibly a greater creature lairing beneath and letting lesser creatures roam the surface. Angry trees/ other natural but hostile leaning creatures would work well if the location was damaged but not destroyed.

Thanks, will start to make undead in the grove. I wonder if they should attack the player in that case, or they do recognize they made the place their home and wouldn't. That would actually be interesting.

[Leon]

Thanks, will start to make undead in the grove. I wonder if they should attack the player in that case, or they do recognize they made the place their home and wouldn't. That would actually be interesting.

Unless the Player has directly has summoned/created them they would be seeing them as another source of life to hate/ food depending on the intelligences involved ~ a greater dead might work with the player knowing that they had a hand in creating the local but lesser ones wouldn't