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View Full Version : Hmm...so the PCs have the McGuffin. [4E, but that's pretty irrelivant]



Hzurr
2009-12-17, 03:26 PM
So last night, we wrapped up the semester with an epic fight against a mind flayer, and it was awesome. I'm running a modified version of the "Depths of Madness" module from Dungeon Magazine number 162, and since I didn't really like the "Brink of Madness" module that closes the adventure, I chose to have the party recover the Tear of Ioun at the end of this module.


I won't go into a full-blown summery, so long-story short: The Party went up against a Mind Flayer that had taken an object called the Tear of Ioun (A powerful artifact of Ioun that had been exposed to severe far-realm energy and has been corrupted), and was using it to turn townsfolk into mutated tentacled monsters. The Party defeated the Mind Flayer (he managed to escape, with one of the PCs as a thrall) and recovered the Tear, and are now debating what to do about it.

One of the PCs is a warforged cleric, who is currently the last Warforged known to exist, and is trying to figure out how to make more. He currently has a few quest hooks to find out where and how Warforged were made, and I had been planning on this quest expanding to cover the next 4 levels or so.

However, the PCs have gotten the idea of trying to cleanse the Tear of Ioun, and use the knowledge and power contained inside to learn about Warforged. They've got an exceptionally talented Wizard, a talented Artificer, and a talented cleric; so they have a pretty diverse skill set.

Here's my issue: The PCs came up with the idea of trying to cleanse the Tear and use it's knowledge. It's a creative idea, that could theoretically work; which should be rewarded (it's that whole idea of saying "yes" to bizarre ideas the PCs come up with). However, the Tear of Ioun has been described as a powerful enough artifact that it could punch a hole in the layer of reality to the far realm; and the amount of corruption done to it now is so extensive that just being exposed to the stone is enough to start triggering mutations. The PCs are currently 12th level, and this object seems to be a bit out of their power level. Originally, I had planned for a local priest of Ioun the party has befriended to take it back to the church higher-ups to be destroyed, cleansed, or contained. But now I'm not certain.

What are your suggestions? Some ideas I've had.

- Let the party know that they can eventually cleanse the Tear, but it requires a higher level ritual (say...level 20 or so).
- Let the party cleanse it, but what they recover is only a fragment of the original power
- Let the party attempt to heal it, but with disastrous consequences if they fail
- Let the party know that it's damaged beyond repair, but they need to find a way to destroy it in a way that wouldn't open up a new portal to the Far Realm or send a wave of radiation across the area.
- Have the NPC take it off their hands, and let them continue with the plot hooks they already have

Sleepingbear
2009-12-17, 03:31 PM
Use it as a quest hook.

They can cleanse the MacGuffin. But they need this other MacGuffin to do it...

Gralamin
2009-12-17, 03:32 PM
I thought it would be pretty clear - The PCs must now quest to cleanse it, likely at some place holy to Ioun (A Hanging Gardens type thing - a marvel of engineering skill, combined with the cleansing properties of water would seem to be the best). Have it require a ritual as well, so now the PCs need to discover a ritual as well. Inside here, weave your other hooks in, to make it look like you were intending this from the beginning.

However, that Mind Flayer wants it back, and is capable of getting help, and thus will be ambushing the party... Which means they might see the return of the Thralled PC.

If the power of the Crystal is what you are worried about, have it so it ends up not cleansing it completely - The crystal was corrupted more then they expected. So now they have to go and quest out another location to get more. And just follow that sort of thing :smallwink:.

Mando Knight
2009-12-17, 03:33 PM
Have it power something that is attractive to the PCs, that's rather dangerous in use for now, but will be available without limit at higher levels after they cleanse the thing.

It's an artifact. It should have some kind of weirdly awesome powers connected to it that benefit the whole party. Set its concordance to be "cleanse" or "corrupt" rather than "please" and "displease," and cleansing the thing could be a major quest in and of itself. Integrate it with the rest of the campaign.

Giegue
2009-12-17, 03:47 PM
I agree with Gralamin. It would be great to have them go on a journey to clense it. However, where I digress is in the fact that that quest should not just be one quest. Rather, it should become the focuse of the campaign. The other plot hooks they have can still be resolved, but make this McGuffin a way to really tell a story. Make their other plot hooks fit into this one. If one of the PCs has say somebody they want to get revenge on from their backstory, make them a BBEG who's the power behind the mindflayer ect.. Other plot hooks can be worked into the main plot, but this quest could be main plot materal and with enough fresh ideas could take them up to level 20, which would be the right level to have such an artifact.

The warforged thing can also fit in. He's the last warforged after all, but WHY? is he the last warforged? If he did not already decide this himself with his backstory, you could have a BBEG who is related to the fall of the warforged be seeking the stone for his own evil purposes. Say for example the warforged where built by a long lost, highly advance civilization that fell to it's own arrogance and avarice. Their descendant of the king of that civilization could have be after the stone themselves to re-build their kingdom and the secrets of the warforged could be discovered when infiltrating their evil lair.

The mindflayer should also play a bigger roll, as should the thralled PC. Even though the mindflayer was defeated, he can easily be powered up to become a BBEG in his own right. Have him and the thralled PC come back as villains seeking the stone. If the thralled PC was a martial type, have him now have levels in Blackguard or some other evil class. If he was a caster, have him have levels in an evil-themed caster class. Make part of the story freeing the thralled PC from the darkness so his player dose not feel left out, and heck, it gives whoever plays him/her the chance to play a villain that fights against the party, something a PC never gets to do unless they have DMed a bit as well.

This has so much plot potential and cam literally make a whole, epic scale campaign, so why not capitalize on it? It also gives the players the chance to have some ultimate goal to work towards besides level 20, the chance to have a reality bending artifact at high levels.

LibraryOgre
2009-12-19, 03:31 PM
The warforged thing can also fit in. He's the last warforged after all, but WHY? is he the last warforged? If he did not already decide this himself with his backstory, you could have a BBEG who is related to the fall of the warforged be seeking the stone for his own evil purposes. Say for example the warforged where built by a long lost, highly advance civilization that fell to it's own arrogance and avarice. Their descendant of the king of that civilization could have be after the stone themselves to re-build their kingdom and the secrets of the warforged could be discovered when infiltrating their evil lair.

A bit of backstory on the warforged. We ran into him, coincidentally, soon after my bard died in the Pyramid of Shadows. He was created thousands of years ago as an emissary to Kravakos from the Church of Erathis, and was caught up in the pyramid. This is what he believes, but during his stay in the Pyramid he was deactivated and exposed to Far Realm energies, so what he believes and what is reality may not be congruent.

Now, we have discovered a brief clue (in the dungeon with the mind flayer) that the warforged were created by the gnomes of Zurith, but that similar work has been done by the drow. It's possible there are more warforged, either in lost Zurith or in the drow realms, but we don't know.

Thajocoth
2009-12-19, 03:52 PM
Artifact!

Make it a Wondorous Item Artifact. Start with the lowest concordance that doesn't result in the item being unsalvageable. In this case, have concordance refer to how clean it is. At it's lowest concordance, it'd have an aura that attacks Will, causing a (save ends) domination effect that causes the PC to attack the nearest living thing and, on the first failed save, gives the PC a disease that would slowly turn it into a tentacled monster. Just reflavor, like, Moon Frenzy or something. Somebody in the party should have a good enough Will save to get close and take it. During the battle, either have it not use it's aura while it's in the villain's bags, have it across the room from the villain, or, if the villain isn't a solo, upgrade the villain's XP worth by one type (minion -> standard -> elite -> solo) or if the villain is a solo, give it an XP value of, say... A level 10 elite trap. (My estimate.)

Things that increase concordance, would be, like: Held by someone who's not an aberration and is able to cast rituals (to remove the initial really bad effect when the party first grabs it), defeat an aberration, promoting free knowledge in some way, being in a library, ect...

Things that decrease concordance might be: Held by an aberration (so defeating the aberration who has it would increase concordance just slightly), promoting madness or secrecy, leaving a library, ect...

At it's highest concordance, they get it's secrets. Along the way, they get a few nice Ioun-related powers. Have it function as an Ioun Orb, Ioun-Blessed Symbol, Eye of Ioun or Ioun Stone of Divine Knowledge depending on who's wielding it. (So it can basically function as an Orb, Wand or Holy Symbol.) Have it eventually, at a higher concordance, grant Ioun's Revelation (from the DMG2)... Stuff like that.

Aron Times
2009-12-19, 05:09 PM
Here's how to cleanse the McGuffin:

1. Get a man to wield the male Choedan Kal.
2. Get a woman to wield the female Choedan Kal.
3. Get them to link together.
4. Channel saidin into Shadar Logoth.
5. ???
6. Profit!