My Wizard PC is nuts and I'd like your help

[evilwoody1337]

Alright, so I've got the typical "Wizard seeks knowledge at any cost" situation here and I'd like to share with you this brief story.

My level 2 PC's are in an underground lair dedicated to the worship of Lamashtu. Our resident Wizard has decided to go off on his own to perform "magical experiments". He's given me a good description of what he's doing. Right in front of the actual shrine itself, he's gone and drawn up a summoning circle using the "Find Familiar" spell as the base of his experimental circle. He's conjured some scissors and trimmed a few beard hairs, placed them in the circle with some of his blood, and upon nearing the completion of the spell - casts Firebolt at the blood/hair to finish his summoning ritual.

Now, behind the screen, I've rolled a very high "Divine Intervention by Lamashtu" roll. What should I do to this curious Wizard? Any ideas of what should happen here? This is all for the sake of magical study, of course.

Side note: He's absolutely by himself in this endeavor and is totally liable to get himself into hairy situations. His player is very aware of this.

[War_lord]

Make him see horrible things and roll on a madness table?

[evilwoody1337]

That's not a bad idea. I'll take that into consideration.

He -is- using conjuration magic as a base though, so I figured something would come of his summoning as opposed to just "he sees bad things."

[Shinn]

I'll work around the "Everyone makes mistakes while seeking knowledge" theme.

Sure, Lamashtu noticed this PC : but it's still a level 2, a puny mortal who can't stand a chance against any of their real minions. So, at best, Lamashtu might watch him more closely.

However, imagine a Devil, or any tricky outsider coming by : it would disguise itself as a Lamashtu's servant and use the PC as a pawn for his own schemes until he finds out the trickery.

[busterswd]

How... "gritty" is your campaign?

The thematic answer is to make him pregnant. He starts needing to roll consitution saves, he wakes up on certain mornings fatigued, and as the days go by, his belly slowly starts to subtly curve outward; he could just be getting fatter, but his abdomen is just a little too solid to be adipose tissue. If he or someone touches it, there are sometimes soft, incoherent whispers that are just faint enough to be the product of the toucher's imagination. His dreams are mostly normal, except his viewpoint is his navel level, and there are significantly more children than usual.

When the time for delivery nears, the player falls asleep, and wakes up with his distended belly back to normal, but tiny, cloven tracks are scattered around wherever they were sleeping. Possible future villain or storyline.


Edit: If you want to work with the forbidden knowledge storyline, he gets a bonus to Arcana/Knowledge/Int checks while pregnant, and if he passes enough high DC tests while sleeping, he realizes another secret of magic that was heretofore unknown to him, and can inscribe another spell in his spellbook of your choice. Maybe 3 successes = 1 level 1 spell?

[Sigreid]

Offer him a pact. Not a warlock pact exactly, but a prize he will be gifted with if he follows through on some genuinely horrible things. Poisoning a high priest of another religion, torturing some children, or go easy on him and just offer him an imp familiar that will keep pushing him...

[EternalPrime]

You say he's using Find Familiar as a guide and his own blood as a material component?
Consider "rewarding" him with a homunculus familiar who seems normal and helpful but is in fact loyal to Lamashtu and will spy on the wizard to see if he will become a future threat or asset to its goddess. Whenever the wizard dismisses the homunculus, it is free to report back to its superiors.
Describe the homunculus as a chimerical creature using aspects attributed to Lamashtu like a lion's head and eagle's talons.

[evilwoody1337]

Oh my god, these ideas are brilliant. Thank you all so very much!

[Unoriginal]

Lamashtu is so amused (or something else, but she'll say "amused") by his effort she shows up in person. In all her demonic, terrifying beauty and glory.

She asks him what he truly desire, and propose to give it to him, but with two conditions:

First, if he accept the deal, no matter what he does, he will have one offspring at some point in his life who will surpass him at his greatest.

Second, he has to have sex with her and make her pregnant.


Lamashtu figured that someone bold enough and with enough innovative mind to experiment like that is worth giving a small investment, and if she give birth to his child, she'll get someone who has the potential to be very powerful.

[Xrposiedon]

I like the madness table idea, but....

Make it a 50/50 positive.

For example....if he rolls above 50, you use the madness table.

Below 50, you create a unique spell for him to learn...or you give him a vision of the location of an artifact.

That way, his role playing doesn't go unrewarded completely .

[Newtonsolo313]

Lamashtu is so amused (or something else, but she'll say "amused") by his effort she shows up in person. In all her demonic, terrifying beauty and glory.

She asks him what he truly desire, and propose to give it to him, but with two conditions:

First, if he accept the deal, no matter what he does, he will have one offspring at some point in his life who will surpass him at his greatest.

Second, he has to have sex with her and make her pregnant.


Lamashtu figured that someone bold enough and with enough innovative mind to experiment like that is worth giving a small investment, and if she give birth to his child, she'll get someone who has the potential to be very powerful.
you do know lamashtu is like the goddess of deformities right?:smallbiggrin:

[Anderlith]

Give him a tumor familiar. A strange nodule under his beard or on his shoulder, that speaks to him, guiding him to greater hights. As time goes on instead of just whispering knowledge to him, the tumor is getting bigger, larger, more demanding. Suddenly his arm isnt under his full control, the tumor moves it sometimes. At some point there will be a force of conflict between tumor & wizard wherein he fights for control of his body. You could then maybe split the tumor into another creature, like a doppleganger, or somekind of hybrid & have to fight, or just mental battles until one is ousted.

[Sigreid]

Give him a tumor familiar. A strange nodule under his beard or on his shoulder, that speaks to him, guiding him to greater hights. As time goes on instead of just whispering knowledge to him, the tumor is getting bigger, larger, more demanding. Suddenly his arm isnt under his full control, the tumor moves it sometimes. At some point there will be a force of conflict between tumor & wizard wherein he fights for control of his body. You could then maybe split the tumor into another creature, like a doppleganger, or somekind of hybrid & have to fight, or just mental battles until one is ousted.

Alternately, steal from Star vs. the Forces of Evil and have him sprout a mini head out of his neck that shouts all of his most embarrassing secrets whenever he tries to be cool. Yeah, I may in fact be evil...

[Unoriginal]

you do know lamashtu is like the goddess of deformities right?:smallbiggrin:

Yeah, so? I don't think it'll stop the wizard.

[Gawayne]

Lamashtu is so amused (or something else, but she'll say "amused") by his effort she shows up in person. In all her demonic, terrifying beauty and glory.

She asks him what he truly desire, and propose to give it to him, but with two conditions:

First, if he accept the deal, no matter what he does, he will have one offspring at some point in his life who will surpass him at his greatest.

Second, he has to have sex with her and make her pregnant.


Lamashtu figured that someone bold enough and with enough innovative mind to experiment like that is worth giving a small investment, and if she give birth to his child, she'll get someone who has the potential to be very powerful.

I like this idea, it fits perfectly with her theme, reminded me a lot of Beowulf. The DM just gotta remember that his powerful son/daughter should be heavily deformed in some way. In fact, to add to the horror, I'd say the offspring should have heavy mix of sexual attractiviness with highly offputting features, just like Lamashtu herself.