On the Lifting of Curses

[Catullus64]

In the latest development of one of my campaigns, the party has agreed to help the natives of an island lift a curse in exchange for supplies. The curse came about when the natives overthrew and killed their former leader, a tyrannical shaman, who cursed the island with his dying breath. Now the island’s game and fish are disappearing, and its crops are withering. For the next session, I need ideas as to how the curse should be lifted. What tasks should the players have to fulfill in order to lift the curse? Should there be rituals conducted, sacrifices made, monsters slain, riddles answered? More importantly, what channels of investigation should I suggest to the players that would yield the proper information on lifting the curse?

[Fishyninja]

In the latest development of one of my campaigns, the party has agreed to help the natives of an island lift a curse in exchange for supplies. The curse came about when the natives overthrew and killed their former leader, a tyrannical shaman, who cursed the island with his dying breath. Now the island’s game and fish are disappearing, and its crops are withering. For the next session, I need ideas as to how the curse should be lifted. What tasks should the players have to fulfill in order to lift the curse? Should there be rituals conducted, sacrifices made, monsters slain, riddles answered? More importantly, what channels of investigation should I suggest to the players that would yield the proper information on lifting the curse?
A fluff idea.

How about making it that when the Shaman conducted the curse, he placed it on some very specific items located throughout the island.
These items represent the 'organs' of the island. So the Heart would need to funciton to pump the life essence 'Water' around the island.

The 'Lungs' could be to do with the wind helping pollinate the crops etc.

Anyway in regards to the mechanics I feel it needs to be linked to the shaman in someway and I think you should add in a difficult choice element. For example if a sacrifice is made, it has to be a human or the party has to sacrifice something like a body part or part of their life essence to lift the curse.

Also you can make minions (created by the shaman) to disrupt the party from succeeding etc.

[Grimjudgment]

Fishninja has some wonderful ideas, but maybe you could also have the party go on a journey to find a hermit that has the ability to destroy an accursed conduit and allow certain areas of the island to become more lively.

Another great concept to use is a portal to the feywild in attempts to lift the curse, bringing them closer to unlocking the secrets of breaking it, usually through means of cancelling out the curse by flooding it with magic or something.

I bet that a great idea is to have the spirit of the shaman actively harass them at every turn, nightmares, hallucinations, etc;

[Fishyninja]

Fishninja has some wonderful ideas, but maybe you could also have the party go on a journey to find a hermit that has the ability to destroy an accursed conduit and allow certain areas of the island to become more lively.

Another great concept to use is a portal to the feywild in attempts to lift the curse, bringing them closer to unlocking the secrets of breaking it, usually through means of cancelling out the curse by flooding it with magic or something.

I bet that a great idea is to have the spirit of the shaman actively harass them at every turn, nightmares, hallucinations, etc;
Awww shucks. Thanks you.

Good Ideas too. I would say if you are making them go to multiple places mix up the mechanics. Have some straight battles, some puzzle aspects, Some RP aspects, maybe mix all three of them up.
Also as a warning, as a backup plan have something you can improvise quickly incase the party think out of the box :P

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

The way I see it a curse has 3 ways to be broken, the Front Door (appeases the curse), The backdoor (technically appeases the cures) or the Sledghammer ( Break the curse by breaking the magic with more magic)

Sacrifice 2 humans and use their blood to annotate the shamans son as chief of the Island

Polymorph two pigs into humans, then have the shamans widow adopt the current chief as her son and do the ritual, all requirements technically fulfilled

Break the 4 Totems that give the Shamans magic hold over the island and dose the shards in holy water, then burn them with holy fire

[Tetrasodium]

Potentially relevant, what is the group's class makeup as different classes could open different doors. it always looks more awesome when you can do this sort of stuff

[Unoriginal]

Maybe make a ritual/ceremony to appeal to the spirits the Shaman used to work with, to counter his power?


What kind of thing did the Shaman do, when he was alive?

[Temperjoke]

I think you need to switch your approach around and work from reverse.

1. How does the curse function? For example, maybe the curse did something to affect the water, which is affecting the crops and the animals, like slowly poisoning them. Does it originate from something? Maybe it wasn't a curse, exactly? What if the shaman had actually been responsible for keeping this from affecting the island before, and his death removed that protection (his "curse" was just his dying words of spite)? Does it center around one of the shaman's items, or his grave? Is it vengeance from the tribe's gods/spirits for killing their shaman?

2. Once you've decided the details of the curse, you can then decide what would end it. For example, if it's vengeance from the gods/spirits, then some sort of ritual might appease them. If it's something that the shaman was protecting the villagers from, then it might be a matter of redoing the shaman's wards/protection. If it's something that was a affecting part of the environment, then something done (a ritual, or a spell for example) at the source might work.

3. After locking down those parts, you need to decide how the players can find out this information. Perhaps he had an apprentice or acolyte that assisted him, who might have knowledge of what the shaman did without knowing the significance of it? Maybe there are older folks who have knowledge of the history of the tribe who might unknowingly possess clues to it ("Well, on the first moon of the harvest season, the shaman always went to this cave at the mountain peak" or "the ancestors carved this stone figure to watch over the waters of the island"). The shaman also could have left clues in his personal quarters, such as tablets passed down from previous shaman.

Once you've got this stuff sorted out, let the players take it from there. You may not need all this information, you might need to improvise more details; the players could even think of a solution that you didn't intend, but could work as well. The main thing is to be flexible and roll with how it progresses.

[Tetrasodium]

I think you need to switch your approach around and work from reverse.

1. How does the curse function? For example, maybe the curse did something to affect the water, which is affecting the crops and the animals, like slowly poisoning them. Does it originate from something? Maybe it wasn't a curse, exactly? What if the shaman had actually been responsible for keeping this from affecting the island before, and his death removed that protection (his "curse" was just his dying words of spite)? Does it center around one of the shaman's items, or his grave? Is it vengeance from the tribe's gods/spirits for killing their shaman?

2. Once you've decided the details of the curse, you can then decide what would end it. For example, if it's vengeance from the gods/spirits, then some sort of ritual might appease them. If it's something that the shaman was protecting the villagers from, then it might be a matter of redoing the shaman's wards/protection. If it's something that was a affecting part of the environment, then something done (a ritual, or a spell for example) at the source might work.

3. After locking down those parts, you need to decide how the players can find out this information. Perhaps he had an apprentice or acolyte that assisted him, who might have knowledge of what the shaman did without knowing the significance of it? Maybe there are older folks who have knowledge of the history of the tribe who might unknowingly possess clues to it ("Well, on the first moon of the harvest season, the shaman always went to this cave at the mountain peak" or "the ancestors carved this stone figure to watch over the waters of the island"). The shaman also could have left clues in his personal quarters, such as tablets passed down from previous shaman.

Once you've got this stuff sorted out, let the players take it from there. You may not need all this information, you might need to improvise more details; the players could even think of a solution that you didn't intend, but could work as well. The main thing is to be flexible and roll with how it progresses.some good points. Nice job Breaking it, hero (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NiceJobBreakingItHero) & nice job fixing it villian (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NiceJobFixingItVillain) can be loads of fun as a gm & extremely simple ways to leverage huge amounts of depth into youur campaign world in a pretty fast & effective way.

[Catullus64]

Potentially relevant, what is the group's class makeup as different classes could open different doors. it always looks more awesome when you can do this sort of stuff

Forge Cleric/Phoenix Sorcerer
Barbarian/Swashbuckler Rogue
Conjurer Wizard
Open Hand Monk