A Hag's Bargain

[Mrc.]

Okay so I'm starting a campaign very soon and I'd love some feedback on what is likely to be a major arc and whether the playground thinks this would work.

Early on (about 4th or 5th level) the party will be asked to investigate a disturbance near one of the Duke's winter hunting lodges. A shimmering portal to a mysterious fey realm has opened, swallowing the surrounding land. The Duke sent a knight through to investigate but said knight returned days later, beaten, shaven and naked.

The reason for asking the party is the Duke knows that the fey court that rules the fey realm will only listen to other fey, and one of the dark secrets of his family is the name and location of an ancient and powerful hag in that same fey realm. He gives the party a symbol of his house and sends them to meet the hag.

The hag (still deciding on a name) seems more than happy to help the party, but she lays out her terms as follows.

"At some point in the future, I'll contact you and ask you to change a single word you would say."

The rest of the arc in the fey realm continues without much hassle.

Many levels later (about 13th or 14th level) the party will likely be helping defend a city against an incursion from the Nightmare Realm (Far Realm/Cthulhu mythos etc.) and to help fight off the gribblies they probably will go deep into the bowels of one of the oldest cities to uncover an army of constructs lying dormant for centuries. To command them requires a ritual that can only be cast by members of a specific race (one that none of the party are a member of) and when they manage to get someone to cast the ritual, it'll go like this:

"Arise now, and strike down the foes of-",

*turns to party*

"What city is it again?"

At which point the hag calls in her bargain, using the army to rid herself of a rival and dooming the city.

Does this sound like something that could work? It's complicated, sure, but I know this group loves intrigue and politics, and if I pull this off it'll be a moment they remember.

[EvilAnagram]

Yes. Do this.

Also, be prepared for the party to ruin it.

[Mrc.]

Also, be prepared for the party to ruin it.

Yeah I'm about 50% as to whether it would work. There are just too many ways the party could, knowingly or otherwise, screw it up but I really, really want to give it a shot. The hag isn't even the BBEG but she's certainly very powerful and they would be wise not to try and double cross her.

Are there any ways I could make it so that even if the party don't necessarily follow this to the letter I can at least make something similar happen?

[Sigreid]

You need to ensure that it's change a word to a word of her choosing. Otherwise a guy like me will change the word, but not to what she wants.

[Mrc.]

You need to ensure that it's change a word to a word of her choosing. Otherwise a guy like me will change the word, but not to what she wants.

Yeah I thought that I'd included that when I typed it here but in my notes I have it. But nice catch!

[Ninja_Prawn]

What's to stop the party replying to the constructs with more than one word? It'd sound very forced if the construct was like "one word answers please. I will only accept the first word you say." Perhaps it'd be better if the hag changed the word retroactively?

What if they refuse the original deal or try to bargain her down? You could have a back-up option of her saying "okay then, how about one letter of one word?" and then the name of the city is one letter away from her name (but only when you translate her name out of Sylvan).

Also, I assume it is possible for the party to defeat the Far Realm invasion without the army? If so... what if they decide to do it without bothering with the army? If not it's a scripted defeat (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FailureIsTheOnlyOption), which might be unfulfilling due to the lack of player agency.

[Mrc.]

Well the party aren't actually the ones giving the order to the constructs: it's someone else who asks them for the name of the city as part of a ritual, and once the ritual is complete the constructs complete their mission before becoming dormant again (this has happened before in the history of the world and is one of the reasons that the army is sealed away: it's notoriously hard to control).

As far as bargaining with the hag they're almost certain to try and I actually encourage it. The hag's stance, however, is she'll offer more concessions if they argue their case well but she has already decided on her payment and will not budge from that. Of course, if they decide not to enlist her help at all, they may well find themselves later on needing her assistance after all.

Regards the Far Realm incursion, it's the main quest of the final few levels but chances are many cities will be destroyed. The whole idea of using the army will be suggested by someone who is in fact an agent of the hag, and this is designed to be one of the low points of the campaign. If the party decide not to try and use this army that's fine: the hag can call her bargain some other way (any teleportation spell is a good start but really there are lots of other ways) but this particular city is bearing the brunt of the attack and likely even with the party using all their resources it's going to be ruined. That's not to say they won't be able to do anything: escorting civilians, defeating powerful Far Realm entities and learning more about their foes to better defeat them in future are all things they can get from this.

[Unoriginal]

Well the party aren't actually the ones giving the order to the constructs: it's someone else who asks them for the name of the city as part of a ritual.

Then this person can hear more than one answer, since mistakes happen. Also, they shouldn't ask questions in the middle of a complicated ritual, unless they want the city of Whatcityisitagain to be destroyed

[Mrc.]

Then this person can hear more than one answer, since mistakes happen. Also, they shouldn't ask questions in the middle of a complicated ritual, unless they want the city of Whatcityisitagain to be destroyed

The actual circumstances of the ritual mean that this won't happen but I didn't want to copy out pages and pages of my notes here.

[Unoriginal]

The actual circumstances of the ritual mean that this won't happen but I didn't want to copy out pages and pages of my notes here.

Then the adventurers will be able to say more than one word, and correct themselves.

In my opinion, the idea of having the hag ask them to change a single word is pretty awesome, but the circumstances you're planning to use it are kinda non-optimal.

It'd be better if one or more of the PCs had to serve as assistant for the ritual, and the hag make them mess their part like you suggested, IMO.


For the hag's name, what about Granny Wordsworth? It'd tie into her untrustworthy nature, and what she uses for her bargains.

[Mrc.]

Then the adventurers will be able to say more than one word, and correct themselves.

Actually no.

[Unoriginal]

Actually no.

Why not? Even without the hag's bargain, if the PCs responded something that made no sense at all, was random confused noise (like "Eurgh, I don't remember either,"), or wasn't the answer but a reaction to the question, like "how can you forget something like that, dude?", would the person making the ritual uses that answer? And what if they had made a genuine mistake like "Ivascorby -wait, no, Tonnabaan."


That aside, what do you think of the name?

[Mrc.]

Why not? Even without the hag's bargain, if the PCs responded something that made no sense at all, was random confused noise (like "Eurgh, I don't remember either,"), or wasn't the answer but a reaction to the question, like "how can you forget something like that, dude?", would the person making the ritual uses that answer? And what if they had made a genuine mistake like "Ivascorby -wait, no, Tonnabaan."


That aside, what do you think of the name?

The name is good, I'll definitely be using it or something similar. As for why not, the party have to travel deep into the depths on Maronmere, the fallen city beneath Citadel Dragonmark to find one of the last members of an ancient race who is capable of performing the ritual to awaken the constructs. Upon convincing this individual they are teleported to a vast chasm with two raised walkways on either side. The party are stood on one walkway and their ally on the other.

They are told to speak the name of the city at the appropriate time during the ritual. If they hesitate the ritual will fail, and this individual is not willing to wait for a second casting. Should the party dither or answer in any way that isn't a single word the ritual will fail and their chance will be gone. Of course, that's actually better for them but they don't know that.

There's more details than just this but I'm not wanting to copy pages and pages of notes.

[Pex]

Being overly optimistic.

The hag's bargain is quite hag-like. Applause. As a player I know I would be highly suspicious and reluctant. Suppose the party agrees. When the hag collects her debt it turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Had the hag not intervened collecting the debt the party was about to do something that would Doom The World or at least Something dear to them, unknowingly due to ignorance or trickery. Collecting the debt saves the day.

For example, your example is vague (not a criticism). "Strike down the foes of -". Does that mean the City of - are the foes to be struck down or does it mean who ever are the foes of City - should be struck down? The party's interpretation is the wrong one for the outcome desired. The hag collecting the debt fixes the wording. It's fine for the hag to have a personal interest for the shared desired outcome as the PCs.

[dickerson76]

Not sure how detailed-oriented your party is, but you might want to make the bargain a bit more concrete. Perhaps it's not a hag but a devil. Or the hag is a devil in disguise or perhaps just inspired by devils. Once they agree, she writes up a formal contract that they are all bound to. Included in the contract is language that describes how they are not allowed to try and circumvent the intent of the deal. If the players trust you, you can gloss over this level of detail. After signing, they feel a tightening under their skin or somesuch indicating that they are magically bound to the contract.

One other thing to keep in mind is that you'll need to have the same party the whole way through. That means no player death, or players swapping out characters to try something different, for the 10 levels in between. In games I've been involved in, that is much more likely to be the insurmountable hurdle.

[Sigreid]

So, what happens if they just don't uphold their end of the bargain?

[JackPhoenix]

You're assuming that the PC who make bargain with the hag will be the same who answer the question. Especially with your interpretation, there's no "party" to answer, only the first individual who speaks counts. Especially 13 or 14 levels later, the PC who dealt with the hag may be long dead.

edit: also, the bargain states she may ask them. She just did, there's nothing about them actually having to do as she asked.

[Mrc.]

I know this group pretty well, and they all have character designs they're pretty attached to so I think it's more likely than with most parties that they'll see it through to the end. I say this mainly because the party leader, a Bard who carries around a single sheet from his deceased father's notebook with several clues as to what happened (including a vague reference to what might be the hag) is being played by my father and it's more than likely that he'll take the lead in the roleplaying side of things. Thus, it's likely him who'll make the bargain with the hag and him who'll be required to assist with the ritual.

Note this isn't favouritism: everyone in the group has their own areas to shine and his just happens to be the roleplaying side (the fact that he's picked a bard helps too). There are many plot hooks for the other characters to get them interested (one of the group is playing a Tiefling fighter in ivory armour that no-one has ever seen anything like before and in the Hag's cave they'll see some matching pieces for example) but I know my dad well enough to trust him to have his character be the agent through which i try this bargain.