ksbsnowowl
2017-05-19, 02:09 PM
My PC's have, through "happenstance," obtained an artifact. They know that it is part of a collection, as they witnessed an evil cleric obtaining and absconding away with another that looks much like it, via a teleportation effect.
If you are a player in a D&D game centered in the City of Purity, stop reading further, please...
The artifacts have to do with an ancient and mostly forgotten god, who has been locked away since before the written histories of many interplanar beings, let alone man, dwarves, and elves.
What the PC's know:
The Artifact is a fist-sized stone, much like a chunk of obsidian.
They found it locked behind a cylindrical Wall of Force, inside a hidden vault underground.
The door to the vault had the symbols of every deity they know of, plus others they did not know of, etched on the door.
They found a second one locked in the top level of an abandoned wizard's tower (a wizard obsessed with Wall of Force and variations thereof), and another party of (evil) adventurers beat them to it. They saw one individual deactivate the cylindrical Wall of Force around the gem, and an evil cleric then snatched up the gem, and used Word of Recall to escape with it.
In studying the wizard's journals left behind in his library, they learned that he considered the Artifact dangerous, and he considered his new variation of the Wall of Force spell "useful for locking that dangerous artifact away from any that might desire it."
They recently discussed the item with someone who could detect evil, and said individual informed them it has an overwhelming aura of evil.
So far, the PC's have been cautious enough to not touch the Artifact (having only picked it up with a wooden box, and more recently keeping that box in a bag of holding), but the scenario writer didn't expect them to have teleportation effects at the level when they first encountered the vault, (a Shadow Hand maneuver got one of the PC's into the cylindrical Wall of Force, at a level when PC's typically don't have such abilities yet). Them obtaining it is perfectly fine; it has added some other interesting aspects to the campaign so far.
What the PC's don't know:
The locked-away deity in question is Tharizdun, and the artifact they have is one of the 333 Gems of Tharizdun, as per the Essence of Evil adventure from Dungeon Magazine back in December 2007, and the Elder Evils expansion, Elder Evils: Shothragot from Dragon #362.
As per page 7 of MM4, the Elemental Princes (Imix, Ogremoch, Olhydra, and Yan-C-Bin) are "too young to remember that ancient war" that locked Tharizdun away... thus my previous comment about him being a forgotten god that men would have very little knowledge of.
So, they have this rock, that they assume is an artifact (it is), based upon a journal entry from a long-dead wizard. They are trying to research it via a city library, and have decided to hire a scholarly sage to research it for them while they head off adventuring. How difficult should it be to figure out what this item is?
Going off of the Library of the Lady information in the Sigil section of Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, trying to learn "Divine/demonic secret" level info is the hardest DC it has listed, and it is merely listed as a DC of "31+." So, it should be at least a DC of 31, likely a DC of 35 or more. They also aren't allowing anyone to "experiment" with it. No one has touched it, and thus no one is learning what its powers are. They just know it is evil, and the schools of magic that its magic auras produce. In my mind, that should make deciphering what it is more difficult, wouldn't you?
I'm thinking something along the lines of DC 40 Knowledge (Arcana), or a DC 35 Knowledge (Religion) check to identify what it is.
Thoughts?
If you are a player in a D&D game centered in the City of Purity, stop reading further, please...
The artifacts have to do with an ancient and mostly forgotten god, who has been locked away since before the written histories of many interplanar beings, let alone man, dwarves, and elves.
What the PC's know:
The Artifact is a fist-sized stone, much like a chunk of obsidian.
They found it locked behind a cylindrical Wall of Force, inside a hidden vault underground.
The door to the vault had the symbols of every deity they know of, plus others they did not know of, etched on the door.
They found a second one locked in the top level of an abandoned wizard's tower (a wizard obsessed with Wall of Force and variations thereof), and another party of (evil) adventurers beat them to it. They saw one individual deactivate the cylindrical Wall of Force around the gem, and an evil cleric then snatched up the gem, and used Word of Recall to escape with it.
In studying the wizard's journals left behind in his library, they learned that he considered the Artifact dangerous, and he considered his new variation of the Wall of Force spell "useful for locking that dangerous artifact away from any that might desire it."
They recently discussed the item with someone who could detect evil, and said individual informed them it has an overwhelming aura of evil.
So far, the PC's have been cautious enough to not touch the Artifact (having only picked it up with a wooden box, and more recently keeping that box in a bag of holding), but the scenario writer didn't expect them to have teleportation effects at the level when they first encountered the vault, (a Shadow Hand maneuver got one of the PC's into the cylindrical Wall of Force, at a level when PC's typically don't have such abilities yet). Them obtaining it is perfectly fine; it has added some other interesting aspects to the campaign so far.
What the PC's don't know:
The locked-away deity in question is Tharizdun, and the artifact they have is one of the 333 Gems of Tharizdun, as per the Essence of Evil adventure from Dungeon Magazine back in December 2007, and the Elder Evils expansion, Elder Evils: Shothragot from Dragon #362.
As per page 7 of MM4, the Elemental Princes (Imix, Ogremoch, Olhydra, and Yan-C-Bin) are "too young to remember that ancient war" that locked Tharizdun away... thus my previous comment about him being a forgotten god that men would have very little knowledge of.
So, they have this rock, that they assume is an artifact (it is), based upon a journal entry from a long-dead wizard. They are trying to research it via a city library, and have decided to hire a scholarly sage to research it for them while they head off adventuring. How difficult should it be to figure out what this item is?
Going off of the Library of the Lady information in the Sigil section of Expedition to the Demonweb Pits, trying to learn "Divine/demonic secret" level info is the hardest DC it has listed, and it is merely listed as a DC of "31+." So, it should be at least a DC of 31, likely a DC of 35 or more. They also aren't allowing anyone to "experiment" with it. No one has touched it, and thus no one is learning what its powers are. They just know it is evil, and the schools of magic that its magic auras produce. In my mind, that should make deciphering what it is more difficult, wouldn't you?
I'm thinking something along the lines of DC 40 Knowledge (Arcana), or a DC 35 Knowledge (Religion) check to identify what it is.
Thoughts?