Life's a Beach

[AlanBruce]

First off, Niwrad, Dantie, Christine, and Chimaera- please stay out of this thread. Thank you.


Greetings! Currently I have my party traversing the seas and they have come across an Island that a Hadozee npc on board identified in an old map as being "dangerous".

The party is, of course, currently in that island.

Their very first encounter was not a violent one- it was a sea elf maiden playing damsel in distress with a large tiki styled hadozee who claims the island is his. He has invited the party to a beach nearby where a community of aquatic core races lounge around, surf, drink, and idly spend their days.

So far, it looks like a perfect little spot to retire and live, with tiki huts suspended twenty feet above the white sandy beaches in case of a high tide. Roasted boar and fish by a roaring bonfire. Lovely sunsets. Surfing. Drinks and leisure.

Life's good.

However, there is a darker side to this tale...

The sea elf maiden is not a sea elf at all, but a Malenti beguiler who, using its appearance as a sea elf, has ensorcelled the hadozee leader of this laid back community by giving them all some sort of flower (ala Lotus Eaters from the Odyssey). This flower is not eaten directly, but diluted into refreshing cocktails and handed out to the beach dwellers.

The reasons behind all this is that, on the other side of the island, a pirate ship is anchored. And has been for awhile. The Malenti keeps contact with a network across the isle and sends those who are too far gone by the flower over to that other beach, where the pirates chain them up and take them to their ship to sell for slavery elsewhere. The Hadozee community leader is completely oblivious to this because the beguiler works her charms on him and his mind is weakened enough due to dependency of the flower.

What I would like is an effect for this flower. Clearly, it would act as an ingested poison of sorts, but the trick here is that it should not be readily apparent if the PCs eat or drink something with the flower's essence in it.

Maybe grant them some bonuses to physical scores while gradually degrading mental ones? Dependency of the flower?

Also, I was thinking of a monster. The very first flower of this kind that grew in the island and that is found sealed deep within the jungle. The Malenti and pirates have found a way to pump her in order to cause her flowers to bloom in the beach, but if killed, it should wilt those flowers and, hopefully, clean the user's mind given time.

If anyone would be so kind to come up or provide ideas/suggestions for the flower's effects and the boss monster, I would be most grateful.

The party is made of 4 PCs, each ECl 12-13 and all full casters. (conjurer, cleric/druid, abj. champ, and bard)

The NPC is a Hadozee bard/virtuoso ECL 10.

Thank you very much

[Xaroth]

First off, Niwrad, Dantie, Christine, and Chimaera- please stay out of this thread. Thank you.


Greetings! Currently I have my party traversing the seas and they have come across an Island that a Hadozee npc on board identified in an old map as being "dangerous".

The party is, of course, currently in that island.

Their very first encounter was not a violent one- it was a sea elf maiden playing damsel in distress with a large tiki styled hadozee who claims the island is his. He has invited the party to a beach nearby where a community of aquatic core races lounge around, surf, drink, and idly spend their days.

So far, it looks like a perfect little spot to retire and live, with tiki huts suspended twenty feet above the white sandy beaches in case of a high tide. Roasted boar and fish by a roaring bonfire. Lovely sunsets. Surfing. Drinks and leisure.

Life's good.

However, there is a darker side to this tale...

The sea elf maiden is not a sea elf at all, but a Malenti beguiler who, using its appearance as a sea elf, has ensorcelled the hadozee leader of this laid back community by giving them all some sort of flower (ala Lotus Eaters from the Odyssey). This flower is not eaten directly, but diluted into refreshing cocktails and handed out to the beach dwellers.

The reasons behind all this is that, on the other side of the island, a pirate ship is anchored. And has been for awhile. The Malenti keeps contact with a network across the isle and sends those who are too far gone by the flower over to that other beach, where the pirates chain them up and take them to their ship to sell for slavery elsewhere. The Hadozee community leader is completely oblivious to this because the beguiler works her charms on him and his mind is weakened enough due to dependency of the flower.

What I would like is an effect for this flower. Clearly, it would act as an ingested poison of sorts, but the trick here is that it should not be readily apparent if the PCs eat or drink something with the flower's essence in it.

Maybe grant them some bonuses to physical scores while gradually degrading mental ones? Dependency of the flower?

Also, I was thinking of a monster. The very first flower of this kind that grew in the island and that is found sealed deep within the jungle. The Malenti and pirates have found a way to pump her in order to cause her flowers to bloom in the beach, but if killed, it should wilt those flowers and, hopefully, clean the user's mind given time.

If anyone would be so kind to come up or provide ideas/suggestions for the flower's effects and the boss monster, I would be most grateful.

The party is made of 4 PCs, each ECl 12-13 and all full casters. (conjurer, cleric/druid, abj. champ, and bard)

The NPC is a Hadozee bard/virtuoso ECL 10.

Thank you very much

Flower effect:
PCs hallucinate thinking that there's some kind of thing on the island that shouldn't be there. My mind goes straight to dragons, dragons everywhere.

Boss monster:
Whatever it is that the PCs are hallucinating, but it's the only one that's actually real. But because everything else is a hallucination, they think it's a hallucination as well. They're wrong, and they learn that the hard way.

All I can really think of at the moment, but it's a fun idea you have going on there.

EDIT: I somehow missed the "not-so-apparent" part of it. Sorry about that. I'd say degrading and increasing ability scores are quite noticeable, I mean I'd notice if one second I could read and write and then after a few drinks I thought dragons were a vegetable.

[AlanBruce]

Flower effect:
PCs hallucinate thinking that there's some kind of thing on the island that shouldn't be there. My mind goes straight to dragons, dragons everywhere.

Boss monster:
Whatever it is that the PCs are hallucinating, but it's the only one that's actually real. But because everything else is a hallucination, they think it's a hallucination as well. They're wrong, and they learn that the hard way.

All I can really think of at the moment, but it's a fun idea you have going on there.

EDIT: I somehow missed the "not-so-apparent" part of it. Sorry about that. I'd say degrading and increasing ability scores are quite noticeable, I mean I'd notice if one second I could read and write and then after a few drinks I thought dragons were a vegetable.

Thank you very much for the hallucination ideas. This is still a work in progress. The party is IC already suspicious about the Hadozee and the community being so friendly and relaxed when their map spells the word "Danger" on it.

Perhaps a slow acting poison that imparts the bonuses/penalties later on, aftre X hours? I have et to polish that part so as to make it really hard for them to ID it IC.

Thank you for bringing that up, though!

[John Longarrow]

For 24 hours after ingestion, they gain the benefit of the endurance feat and only need 1/2 normal rest or sleep to be refreshed.
After 24 hours, their will save is reduced by 1 for 24 hours.

For each dose after the first, the minus 1 to will save is increased by 1.

If the characters will save is reduced to 0, they are affected by a suggestion spell for the next 24 hours. Anyone can give them a suggestion.

Basically they can party up for a while, but then they become very suggestible.

You may want to have this be a DC 30 fort save. Those who save don't get the endurance and reduced sleep. DC goes up by 1 for each dose they've taken in a 24 hour period.

[AlanBruce]

For 24 hours after ingestion, they gain the benefit of the endurance feat and only need 1/2 normal rest or sleep to be refreshed.
After 24 hours, their will save is reduced by 1 for 24 hours.

For each dose after the first, the minus 1 to will save is increased by 1.

If the characters will save is reduced to 0, they are affected by a suggestion spell for the next 24 hours. Anyone can give them a suggestion.

Basically they can party up for a while, but then they become very suggestible.

You may want to have this be a DC 30 fort save. Those who save don't get the endurance and reduced sleep. DC goes up by 1 for each dose they've taken in a 24 hour period.

This is a very good idea! The party is there to ressuply, mostly. That and because of the old map their hadozee friend deciphered. They have inquired in the island about monsters and have been told that there are, but deeper into the jungle.

Everybody at the beach is safe and having a fantastic time, something the party still has trouble believing, since if there are monsters deep in the jungle, why are these guys so calm? And unarmed (they are all wearing swimsuits or bathing suits).

So far, their hadozee npc friend has tasted some of the food - a giant fish slowly cooked over a pit in the beach and seasoned with local herbs and spices and he has given them the mental OK (the party and npc are mentally linked for many hours). So hopefully that will give assay their worries.