Question about artifacts

[dantiesilva]

Ok so in a game I am in at this time we just lost a major battle and so far 2 NPC friends of ours have been killed, and a third may be about to die do to our enemies wanting an extremely powerful artifact we just received. However out of fear of what it could do the party has decided to not use it after our DM has told us to use it in all but neon colors. So far we have played monkey in the middle with it which led to a PC dying, and being brought back by the NPC that died. And then one lone character teleporting away with it and not casting anti scry spells on himself and it as he did so. Thus when he teleported into a big city the enemy went oh hey here he is and poped up behind him and are now once again killing off NPCs that have proven important to the story.

I have hinted at this could all be stopped now many times if they would just throw on the gauntlet and use it, just like the DM has, however now the argument has turned to what if it destroys half the city. Keep in mind after they have already had an entire village killed, including one of the PCs families which made him transform into some demon and go on a bloody rampage making the villains retreat only to hunt down the one who ran away.

So my question to you is this playground, as a player who played this before I knew the key was to use the gauntlet however kept quite until round 4 when half of the party was about to be dead. The villains made it clear they wanted it baddly and we had looked at it threw arcane sight and almost got blinded how powerful its magic was. So am I metagamming in my views to use the gauntlet when the villain has now followed you to a new city and is lobbing disintegrate left and right, has high SR, and extremely high Ac that in 7 rounds he has been hit maybe 2 times, or do they have a logical reason to not use this artifact that has caused so much death trying to protect so far and keep out of their hands?

[georgie_leech]

You could point out that if the artifact does have city-destroying power, dying and letting the minions of the BBEG take it for themselves is a terrible idea.

[AlanBruce]

I'm the DM of this campaign.

The artifact in question looks like a gauntlet- all a PC has to do is put it on like a regular gauntlet.

Sadly, decisions were made that delayed such actions- mainly fear of the unknown (understandable- it is an artifact and they have no idea what it can do).

So the party attempts to slow the assassins down.

Each round spent delaying them, is one relevant story npc dead.

The npcs alive, though a mental link, told the pc currently holding (but not wearing) the gauntlet to leave the village, which was being decimated by the villains.

The party IC is aware that the artifact has a lot of power, but will not use it, resorting to teleportation and fog spells and glibness.

Granted, of the 3, Glibness worked best, giving the artifact holder a round or two to teleport away and have the assassins follow him to a different part of the world.

Sadly, the PC in question decided to go to an important town in the campaign and seek help and refuge from a pair of wizards who had been trusted allies to the party.

It wouldn't take long for scry and die tactics to come into play as the assassin, altered self as a party member, walks into the wizard's shop and bluffs the PC.

Bluff does not go through (I gave the PC a +20 modifier to his sense motive since the PC in question being impersonated had been sent through a rift to Ocanthus via Reality Maelstrom).

PC attempts a Vertigo field. Fails the SR against the assassin (which he knew in advance he had due to a successful check).

Assassin disintegrates wizard npc and ally, claiming that he will kill every single person dear to him unless the item is handed to the assassin.

At this point, initiative will be rolled.

The other npc wizard will use celerity + teleport to get himself and the PC away (he only has 1 celerity prepared and the other wizard did not prepare it, since they are both school teachers, not adventurers).

Could many npc deaths had been averted? Maybe. I feel I could not directly tell my layers to use the item- at best, I was hoping that after npc death number 1, they would get the hint.

It would take the death of an npc cleric, half a village sucked into another plane (along with the party mage and a cleric npc) and the death of a wizard npc to, hopefully, get a message across.

[Blackhawk748]

ok at this point i would have already put on the gauntlet and shrieked "FALCON PUNCH" and prayed to every non evil deity that i dont nuke the city and myself. Now i recommend giving the gauntlet to the PC who lost his family, he probably wont mind risking his own death in using the thing as he just lost what was important to him, that and hes probably chomping at the bit for vengeance

[hymer]

@ AlanBruce: How sure are you that the players are not playing you at the moment?

"He wouldn't kill NPC X, he'd never do that."
"Well, you know where to head to find out next!"
"I bet he'd destroy the whole campaign if we keep at it!"
"I'll bet a thruppenny bit!"
"You're on!"

Or they're considering it a game of chicken - who will sway first, the ones losing PCs or the ones losing a world? Or they think the harder you push to get them to use the artifact, the more heroic they are for resisting. Or the harder you try to make them, the harder you'll screw them over for actually putting it on.

:smallwink:

[Azoth]

Gotta agree with Blackhawk here. Even as a veteran player of many games with evil malicious DMs. Once the situation turns to what looks like a zero win chance, you tend to say screw caution...especially when running away doesn't work. I'd have put that that thing on even if meat fisting an ogre to get my hand in the thing. Worst case is I lose a character. Best case is we live.

[AlanBruce]

@ AlanBruce: How sure are you that the players are not playing you at the moment?


I would have no way to know if that is the case. It would be hilarious if it turned out to be that way, of course.


Or they're considering it a game of chicken - who will sway first, the ones losing PCs or the ones losing a world? Or they think the harder you push to get them to use the artifact, the more heroic they are for resisting. Or the harder you try to make them, the harder you'll screw them over for actually putting it on.


That's the kicker here- they have been told to take it as far away from the villains as possible- nobody ever told them not tow ear or X would occur.

At this point, it's a gamble. However, if the PC in possession of said item continues to attempt to escape them, the body count will just get bigger- eventually moving to PCs.

I would like to believe the PC have some sort of kindred feeling towards the NPCs thus lost in this world spanning fight. The npcs have been most helpful towards them in the past and have even participated in fights with them against encounters a few levels ago.

But adventurers...you never know with them, right? :smallwink: