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View Full Version : Help with a follow up to an improvised situation



DMThac0
2018-10-24, 12:34 PM
Summary: Player (Homebrew Bard lvl 6) has an artifact instrument that is paired to another which, when played together, can close rifts between planes. The player who has one of the paired instruments decided to play the song she'd been using to close rifts backward. I had her roll a performance and she got her 20 for the night, a total of 32 on performance. I had to come up with something on the spot, fortunately I was quick enough on me feet to come up with the start of what could be very interesting...but I'm drawing a bit of a blank now that I have to move forward with it. I am really lucky with my group...smart, resourceful, tactical, enjoy puzzles, only one is really the dungeon crawl type.

She ended up being teleported to the source of what was causing the rifts in this location to open, a Crystalline Demon. The demon was in it's jeweled form and she has subsequently picked up and carried along the demon/gem. She is on the opposite side of the Dwarven mines that they've been exploring from the rest of the party. I already plan on having the demon start to warp her mind, but the creatures that have spilled forth from the rifts can easily destroy her. The rest of the party (lvl 6) can handle the creatures, mephits, basiliks, ankhegs, etc.

The party just, a few sessions ago, realized that the bard is of a lost line of heirs to the artifact. The other artifact belonging to another bloodline, and her (backstory) childhood friend/love interest. This is the first set of rifts that they've encountered, I'm using it to teach the Bard, and group, how the instrument works, how the rifts work, and introduce this story arc. They have a means of communication already set up, a variant of stone of sending, so they can already manage that (though they've somehow forgotten about them for the moment...) The bard is already aware that there are multiple rifts in the area, having closed 2 so far, there is a pull that she feels in the general direction of a portal that gives her some form of guidance with her task. I've given her mental images, when first trying to earn the instrument's favor, of the City of Brass, and the Kraken from the Plane of Water.

So I ask you all, how would you bring the group together, how would you make this infiltration interesting? Feel free to ask questions if you want clarification.

MarkVIIIMarc
2018-10-25, 11:14 AM
I think you're going too deep. I do this a lot. The party is divided, right? Ask the Bard if they want help from the other players, give the Bard some idea which rift to go through to get them?

DMThac0
2018-10-25, 11:22 AM
What do you mean by "going too deep"? (It's interesting to get other's views on this)

As to using the rifts to travel, the players don't know this but, the rifts will tear them apart. They're unstable constructs that are nothing but unbridled chaotic energy from that particular Plane. The Bard was teleported via her song, not a rift, and she is the only one who can track them. The rest of the group has no way of tracking the rifts without her.

A possibility that came up was potentially putting her "out of phase" with the world and using that in some fashion.