Just to see how people feel about this, do you think the OoGD should be taken, destroyed, or otherwise removed from the player's possession between completing the vanilla segment of ToEE and starting TotWC and any other added content? (Those scenarios in which the Orb is destroyed or turned over to Zuggy are irrelevant to this poll.)
Well, you could always have the player ask Burne to fabricate a counterfeit orb after he destroys the real one. Add the risk of getting caught if your skills are too low to turn it into a dilemma. -Mike
It should remain in the game, though perhaps it could have it's powers stripped from it, since it's power is closely tied with Zuggtmoy herself, and if she were defeated, it could also conceivably lose it's power. It's still be a damn nice trophy to hang onto. Thatsaid,I don't know what the module has to say about the Orb, it's creation or the source of it's power, so I'd suggest looking it up in the original PnP module to see what the module designers say about it. At the very least, the ability to teleport to the nodes would be kinda pointless after the destruction of the temple, it's other abilities could still be very handy however
My concern is that the completed Orb seems overpowered (Detect Lies, Poison, Chain Lightning, Flame Strike, Stoneskin, Icestorm, the four elemental summons, and the four fiend summons) and would make the after-game too easy (or require the after-game to be built specifically to balance out Orb, which would probably make it too hard for those who destroyed or lost it). Regarding the Orb's nature (this is from reading other material on it, not the actual module since I don't have it), it was made by Zuggy and Iuz together, but Zuggy has far more invested in it. It's destruction weakens her considerably while it only temporarily disrupts Iuz's ability to control some fiends. As such, Zuggy's death seems like it should destroy the Orb or at least render it powerless. If she is banished, it makes sense that the local forces of good would take possession of the Orb and destroy it themselves (could have Burne or whoever takes it offer the party a substantial reward for it to make neutral-aligned parties giving up the Orb make sense). The after-game will not be holding to canon regardless, so I think dealing with the Orb should be based on what is best for gameplay. Two caveats to make: First, keeping the Orb around solely for Ranth's Mod may not be necessary. Hopefully he'll weigh in here on whether he wants to use it or plans to use a different quest hook and causation like the ones I suggested. My opinion is that removing the Orb immediately after finishing the vanilla segment and making a number of small changes to the "Hextorites want the Orb" theme starting his mod would be best, but it's up to him and Gaear. Second, having the Orb, if it is kept, rendered powerless through whatever means would also be fine in my view. Turn it into an inert (gold pun intended) trophy, selling it, whatever; I just don't think such an unbalancing item as the functional Orb would be good for any of the added content, especially how trying to account for it will probably screw players that don't have it. Just my two cents, give or take a dollar.
I've made it so that the orb is given to differing NPCs in variety of different ways, so that if needed it, it can be given back later in the game.
the only ending I can think of where it might matter that the orb wasn't destroyed but still have power would be the you take over the greater temple, altho then you'd probley end up with a battle of emridy meadows again. As allyx said with zuggy dead the orb becomes a paper weight
The Orb could be swapped out for the un-Noded version afterwards, if that would make it less powerful?
I DO think it should be neutered. But it should play some part in the the game, perhaps as an attractive nuisance.
So it seems the general consensus is to keep it in, but remove or drastically reduce its powers? That's fine in my book, but I'd still be wary of building any mods to require the orb since some parties (both good and evil) won't have it for whatever reasons. As far as story considerations, it makes sense to say that all or most of the Orb's powers stemmed from Zuggy, and her destruction ended them. For the banishment route, it'd just have to be a non-canon Co8 fiat that Zuggy can't power the Orb while imprisoned or something (unless someone can find a canon justification for the same). Now I'll just wait for Gaear to veto the whole idea. :roll:
The orb should stay in the game because of module consistency. Perhaps Ranth's mod could just check if it had been destroyed earlier and, if not, collect it from the PCs.
What about the evil ending where Zuggy becomes your slave? No powers are srtipped from her so the orb's powers should stay intact; and stay in the PC's inventory to keep control of her. I know I'm just picking holes in the plot but to make it work, all endings should be considered.
that would also most likely bring about another "battle of emridy meadows" situation. speaking of which, is that a viable option - if you win and zuggy is still all good so the orb doesn't get nerfed, pretty much everyone goes KOS on you're ass and a few hundred guys looking for thrommel turn up and want to use you for target practice.
