PDA

View Full Version : Help! the Mournland Organ Peddler [3.5, Urgent!]



Kol Korran
2010-09-10, 07:26 AM
If you're either Itay, Guy, Tomer, Ariel or Alon, get out now!
The campaign in question basically takes place in Eberron, but that is not really relevent.
i am DMing for a group of friends, and they might enter the Mournland (a bizzare country where all kind of bizzare things happen, more towards the creepy or gruesome. well, at least in my Mournland).

i need help with a strange sort of encounter i'm designing. it's completly ad hoc and not supported in the rules, but it's been a long time since i DMed, and i'd appreciate advice.

This is Urgent as the game takes place tommorow evening...

the basic concept is that the party meets a strange wagon, with an amiable and friendly looking ogre (who acts quite unlike an ogre) driving it. the wagon has no beast pulling it, but it doesn't seem to matter. he knows the characters by name, and may even hint about secrets they have. but all of that is irrelevent- he is here to make a sale!

what does he sell? organs, and powers associated with them. the organs replace the characters, or are added to them, in return for the appropriate character's organ (or a piece of), and a small amount of money. there is also a cost in general health, as the "exchange", shakes the system. (the character loses 2 CON).

the process is reversible (as well as CON gain) but costs a bit more money. the players don't have to accept, just thought to introduce an interesting encounter for the mournlands.

i need help with:
- Ideas: i made some ideas for most characters except 1. but i'd appreciate other ideas for the other characters.
- balance: i want the exchange to be fairly equel to the 2 CON lost, and it should be equel between the characters. something cool, but not game changing.
- flavour: there isa small ritual of exchange for every organ. i'd like it to be somewhat disturbing. ideas are welcome. i suck at this.
also, any way to make the organ peddler more interesting (or the scene) in general) would be appreciated.

lets begin:
1) Half Giant Pssychic warrior (we treat magic and psionics the same). he plays a bit like Roy. so far he think his casting is lacking a bit:

The heart of an ogre mage: "a big fellow like you, with magic in his mind, needs magic from the heart to fuel it! here, this belonged to a brother of mine. sort to speak."
benefits: Manifester level goes up by 1 (+1CL)
Ritual: the Organ pedder gets the body of an ogre mage from his cart, opens his chest and ribs to expose it's still beating heart. he then makes a shallow cut over the rib cage of the half giant, and says "now hug" as they do the half-giant's rib cage opens and the hearts... "flop" into place.

2) ELf cleric necromancer: she has the entire "queen of the undead routine on her. the player is somewhat of an opportunistic rules lawyer.
The Bone Marrow of a lich: "you seek to master the dead, gain some of their power to increase your own!"
Benefit: all the summoned or animated undead gains +4 to str, and 2 HP per HD (as if he has the augumented summoning feat, only also for animated undead.
Ritual: the organ peddler takes out a some bone that looks between a giant inkpen and a needle. he sticks it into the necromancer's legand painfully draw the bone marrow... slowly... then he takes out a box, and takes out a parchment from within. there is a line with some archaic name at the bottom. he gives the inkpen to the character, and asks her to sign (this is just to frighten the player, he heates signing things), the peddler than traces the inkpen over the name, whcih draws it (the lich's bone marrow) into it. stick it to the neckromancer, and Voila!


3) Half elf Rogue1/ Duskblade the rest: this is my problematic character. the player made it into a sort of a coward that prefers to avoid conflicts, but when he has to (most of the time due to a compelling curse), he carries a punch. for those of you who know Discworld, think of Rincewind, but with actual capabilities. he hasn't emphasized anything he wants yet.
ideas? i thought maybe the skin of a displacer beast (giving him blur for some rounds a day?) or maybe some sort of etheral jaunt ability (but that seems to powerfull). ideas?

4) the Kalashtar enchantress sorceres: very charismatic, plays as the sociable yet slightly naive good natured woman, prefers to use her spells to circumvent probles, rather than fight. she expressed an interest in the fey.

Organ: The Skin of A dryad "the power of the fey can be yours, for only a kiss"
Benefit: she gains another spell known (of her choice) of level 1 and level 2, of the Druid's list.
ritual: the ogre brings out a large uprooted tree from the wagon. near it's bark is the face of a captivated Dryad. "kiss" sasy the ogre. as they kiss the Dryad hugs her, and slowly the bark creeps into the sorceress skin, melding into it, making her skin seem a bit darker, but not much. as this happens the wood whitnes and peels, looking sickly and dead, and so does the dryad. since the player is basically good, i may goad him by saying the dryad seems to implore her, or the ogre might says she is suffering slowly. not sure about it yet.

5) Poisondusk lizard man swordsage (focusing on tiger): this guy is the bastard of the party. think Belkar. he loves his poisons, and we've made a bit relenting rules for making them, so he carries quite a few.
Organ: either part of the brain, or a chemical gland of a young water naga (in my version of monsters the nagas are masters of poison. look at my signature if you're interested). "the secrets of the poison masters are yours... for a little price". I though of giving him an actual poison gland of some creature (baby wyvern? scorpion? water naga?) but as the other powers stay effective to higher levels (i think) while poison doesn't scale well.
The DCs to resistof crafted posions goes up by one. the brain gives him the knoweldge, or the poison glands gives him an extra substance.
Ritual: the player is a bit unshockable, as is his character, so i have no good ideas. the Brain could be pretty simple with cracking up his skull and infusing the Naga brain piece in (maybe with a few Naga memories?) the chemical gland eludes me though.

if you've been SOOOOOOO kind to read this far, please let me know what you think. help me make a fun encounter for my players!

Thanks a bunch,
Kol.

Mordokai
2010-09-10, 07:45 AM
I don't have much to offer to you, in the ways of advice. I'll just say you seem to have everything worked out and this does seem like a fun encounter... from a point of view I see it. I imagine it could be quite disturbing to your players and their characters, but I take that as a good thing. You need to shake them a little, every once in a while :smallsmile:

Maybe you could do something with kalashtar sorceress. A dryad sounds like a nice choice, but a nymph? Give her a flat out +2 CHA bonus (that comes with some cosmetic changes, aka, character features become more fey-like, but that should have no in game effects... probably), but in return, make her do something downright evil? Or at least a shade of gray maybe. Maybe the nymph is in the state of pain (I imagine a nymph in Mournland would be in a quite a lot of pain, actually) and the sorceress is actually "doing her a favor". Can she kill a good being to save her and expand her own power? A transition of power, basically. Or, if you consider charisma bonus too powerful, maybe a three par day use of one of nymph spell like ability.

I really am no expert on balance, so I'm afraid I can't offer any more advice. But I hope this works out well for you. I would be interested in knowing how this played out, however :smallwink: If you could write the post game recap for us, that would be just awesome :smallbiggrin:

Beorn080
2010-09-10, 07:54 AM
Make the effects more powerful, but they stop working outside the Mournlands. Possibly even more negatives if they leave. Make it VERY appealing, like +8str and +8 HP for undead for the one, +2-4 CL, that sort of thing, and very few negatives.

While in the Mournland.

Then they have a choice. Do they leave once they are done, and try to find someone to fix them, or wander around the Mournland and try to find this peddler before he sells their organs. What's more, if everyone takes it, you can have him leave the Mournland, having gotten, effectively, a body that was never in there, and thus make the PCs chase him down while their bodies are deteriorating.

Kol Korran
2010-09-10, 08:11 AM
@Mordokai: I also thought about a nymph, and maybe i'll go with that. +2 Cha is too powerfull i think, as she allready has a high charisma and her spells are very hard to resist. i'll think of the nymph powers, though i wanted something that reflected "nature's power" more. but i'll see. blinding beauty might be deterimental to the party, but perhaps stunnign gaze? i suck at balance too... :smalltongue:

as to a game recap: i thought of maybe doing a campaign log. i invested quite a lot in this campaign, and the players seem to be into it. alas- i'm not sure i have the time. but perhaps a few choice sessions?
that is IF they actually go to the mournland. there are two other possibilities.

@Beorn080: thanks, but i prefer not to follow your advice (no offense meant) for three reasons: the first is that although i do not railroad, there are compelling reasons to leave the mournland not that long after the meeting with the peddler, and they won't have time to go looking for him. this is not a sandbox game- the villains are moving their plan and the players are in a sort of a race against them.
secondly- if i'll put powerfull abilities, there is not way my players will make the switch- they'll be sure there is a catch.
thirdly- i don't want this to be a passing experience, i want it to be something from the morunland that stays with them, like a creepy memory. a sort of a scar that brings unpleasent ideas.

but as i said- i appreciate ideas, they help me think things clearer.

kestrel404
2010-09-10, 02:23 PM
I'll do what I can to help. Sounds really interesting, I'd love to be in a game like this.

Now, the price is 2 con. That's steep for a graft - usually the cost of a graft is in HP, not CON. So we're talking some fairly serious upgrades - like at least 2 feats worth.


benefits: Manifester level goes up by 1 (+1CL)
Yeah, that's pretty close to right. I'd also grant an extra power - not player choice, but something appropriate to Oger Mages. Let me look - aha, Ogre mages get Invis at will. Invisibility as a power is a bit too much, but I think that Swift Invisibility would work: Level 2 power, gain invisibility for 1 round as a swift action, and it lasts until the beginning of your next turn. Every extra PP you spend causes it to last an extra turn. You become visible again if you make an attack, as normal. Basically, you can spend 3+ PP as a swift action to render the next thing you attack flat-footed, or avoid getting attacked.



Benefit: all the summoned or animated undead gains +4 to str, and 2 HP per HD (as if he has the augumented summoning feat, only also for animated undead.
Already a feat, it's called Corpsecrafter in Libris Mortis. You got it almost exactly. I would give the PC this feat as a bonus feat, plus one other feat which requires corpsecrafter (their choice). This allows them to take further empowering feats, and prevents them from taking the feat to double the bonus.


Half elf Rogue1/ Duskblade the rest: ... think of Rincewind, but with actual capabilities.

Ooh, I've got a nasty idea - nasty in a fun and interesting way. Give him the "Shadow of a Black Lion". The black lion is actually a Dark Lion from Tome of Magic. This gives him a +10 (untyped) bonus to all forms of movement speed, and a +2 bonus to both hide and move silent. However, as time passes, he slowly (once per level) gains other traits off of the Dark Creature template, until he's got the full template (No level adjustment, since he's getting it slowly over time). Last thing he gets should be the Hide in Plain Sight power.


Benefit: she gains another spell known (of her choice) of level 1 and level 2, of the Druid's list.
Hmm, interesting, but I'd make it two spells of her choice from the druid list, period. As though she were taking the power that grants additional spells known.


The DCs to resist of crafted posions goes up by one. the brain gives him the knoweldge, or the poison glands gives him an extra substance.

This is also the equivalent of a single feat, I believe it's the expert poison maker feat or something similar. Make it an 'insight bonus' of +2 DC and that should be perfect. This will let it stack with similar feats he'd be taking later if he wanted to go that way, and a +1 bonus to the save DCs is pretty wimpy for 2 points of Con on a melee character, even if he's a secondary melee character.

Hope that helps.

Dralnu
2010-09-10, 02:38 PM
+1 to kestrel's suggestions. Pretty kickass stuff. Only one that feels a bit weak is the +poison DC. How about a gland that lets you secrete a cool poison on your weapon X times a day? Not a poison expert so I'm not sure what would fall under "cool," but it should be in line with the other organs (which are all pretty darn strong).

Also, was pretty shocked to see a Tomer mentioned here, I'm one of the few living in Canada. Shana Tova! Good luck on the encounter.

kestrel404
2010-09-10, 02:59 PM
If you want to go with a 'add poison to weapon' power, I would allow the character to use the Prevenom or Prevenom Weapon power (psychic warrior list), with a manifester level=class level with a con-based save, 3+con bonus times per day. Normally I would recommend manifester level=1/2 class leve, except that this should obviously be a con based power, and acquiring it costs you con, so nerfing the save DC would be silly. Oh, and if you want it to be really cool, the PC can 'augment' this ability by spending HP as though they were PP - he literally bleeds freely onto his weapon in order to empower the poison.

This poison would not stack with any other poison on a weapon - it would actually wash it off, replacing it. Just to eliminate silliness.

Tetrasodium
2010-09-10, 03:29 PM
2) ELf cleric necromancer: she has the entire "queen of the undead routine on her. the player is somewhat of an opportunistic rules lawyer.
The Bone Marrow of a lich: "you seek to master the dead, gain some of their power to increase your own!"
Benefit: all the summoned or animated undead gains +4 to str, and 2 HP per HD (as if he has the augumented summoning feat, only also for animated undead.
Ritual: the organ peddler takes out a some bone that looks between a giant inkpen and a needle. he sticks it into the necromancer's legand painfully draw the bone marrow... slowly... then he takes out a box, and takes out a parchment from within. there is a line with some archaic name at the bottom. he gives the inkpen to the character, and asks her to sign (this is just to frighten the player, he heates signing things), the peddler than traces the inkpen over the name, whcih draws it (the lich's bone marrow) into it. stick it to the neckromancer, and Voila!


Don't use a random lich... Use Vol for the lich, especially if she knows who that is, "The signature directly above the one you are directed to reads 'Vol'" sort of thing. Between Vol's mark of death and the blood of vol cult you have plenty of potential future "fun" :).

Telonius
2010-09-10, 03:40 PM
3) Half elf Rogue1/ Duskblade the rest: this is my problematic character. the player made it into a sort of a coward that prefers to avoid conflicts, but when he has to (most of the time due to a compelling curse), he carries a punch. for those of you who know Discworld, think of Rincewind, but with actual capabilities. he hasn't emphasized anything he wants yet.
ideas? i thought maybe the skin of a displacer beast (giving him blur for some rounds a day?) or maybe some sort of etheral jaunt ability (but that seems to powerfull). ideas?



Feet of the Were-squirrel. Gains +10 movement and Haste 1/day.

The pitch: I see you sometimes get cold feet about going into battle. All you need to do, is be yourself.

The ritual: He draws out a rod of cold iron, and touches the character's feet with it. They immediately turn blue, freeze, then seem to shatter into a thousand pieces. The new feet are right there underneath the old shattered ones, and the pieces seem drawn to the cold iron like a magnet.