Quest to resurrect a PC.

[Rebecca-47]

After a tough boss battle in a dungeon of dwarven necromancers, our dear Pala/Barb drow was killed. Now the party is seeking out a healer to resurrect him, and the player with the dead character is bringing in a temporary new PC to guide the others on this journey.

Unfortunately, I am not used to doing surprise quests or dungeons like this one! I'm a bigtime planner!
So far, I just have a very vague outline for what they're going to face on the way to the healer, and an idea for who/what the healer is. (A Qirin-like creature). In addition to the party's quest, I would like to give the dead character some sort of short internal quest to run through. I was thinking he might meet or fight a grim reaper, or a dark duplicate of himself similar to the Avatar Of Death. He's been a great roleplayer, so I really want to give him something narrative to chew on. It took a long time for his character to feel like he belonged to this world**, and he died herocially.

... but I've never done this type of thing before as a DM, and would be grateful to bounce some ideas off of you all and hear some stories from your own games. Have you ever resurrected a character? What kind of trials do you think would suit this occasion? (Both for the living party, and the dead?) I want the party to be challenged in an interesting way by the demands of our divine but detached healer, who is seeking to judge their worth. A simple fight against the Qilin could be cool, but I'm not sure it's enough.

My players are *EIGHTH level. The living ones are a goblin rogue, a changeling barbarian, and the new temporary addition, an eladrin druid.

**(To clarify, I mean the character, not the player. He is a seasoned roleplayer and is very explorative of the world,)

[Trask]

I've experienced some cool things to this effect as a player. I like the idea of the Qirin testing their worth, not everyone deserves to be resurrected, just a fight seems a bit boring, if a party was strong but evil would they be worthy? A Qirin seems like a being with little use for gold, maybe it could command them to do some kind of random good deed (give up your treasure/magic sword to the next beggar you see, and the beggar is the Qirin in disguise and maybe gives it back to them once they pass the test). Or you could have the Qirin be in trouble (its lair under siege by a chain devil and a pair of ghoul minions who seek to capture it and bring it back to his master, who will turn it into a nightmare-kirin) and it helps them out of gratitude once they save it.

For the dwarf, meeting the grim reaper is always a classic. That happened to a character of mine once, and he got to ask the grim reaper if his long-lost parents were still alive. You mentioned that the dwarf's player struggles a bit with RP, maybe this is the time for them to learn something important in the afterlife, some kind of riddle or important secret that will help the party some time down the line. To give him some action, have him avoid some kind of terrible fate, like the ghosts of humanoids he's killed trying to pull him deeper into hell as revenge.

[Ionathus]

Caveat: I've never had a PC die, nor (by extension) had one be resurrected.

This is all going to depend on how you want resurrection magic to be handled in your game. I don't have data for this but I have a hunch that resurrection magic is one of the most homebrewed mechanics in 5e, depending on how rare or same-old same-old you want it to be. Could every death be your last? That's a very different game than one where revivification is guaranteed absent a TPK or Disintegrate or similar.

Because at 9th level, your PCs already have access to death-reversing magic through the Druid's Reincarnate spell. Obviously they don't want to go that route, but it's worth mentioning that in vanilla D&D 5e, your players theoretically have the means to do this right now, without ever going on a quest for it. Some DMs would take that to mean that you shouldn't bog the party down in a long sidequest to give them something they already kinda have access to.

But quests are fun, and "revive our lost companion" is a great goal to hook the players! So you should decide how much of a time investment this will be. Is it a mini-arc that only takes 2-3 sessions? Is it a longer-term goal? How much energy are they going to devote to this? Having them track down a Kirin sounds fun and like a great side quest. I'd lean into the roleplaying opportunities: they have to overcome obstacles and enemies to even reach the Kirin, but then maybe the Kirin can ask them "why do you care about bringing this person back?" Give them a little chance to "reverse eulogize" the dead PC, to explain what the dead PC meant to them, and why they're still needed alive in this world.

For the dead PC themselves getting to roleplay -- the sky's the limit. You're in charge of what the afterlife is like in your game -- I've batted around a lot of ideas for when one of my players finally bites it in a combat. You could have them meet one of the psychopomps (https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=155) - afterlife guides who can range from good-natured to neutral arbiters of the dead to malicious tricksters or tormentors. Loads of unique personalities and opportunities for roleplay: "why should I let you go back?" "What's back in the living world that you care about so much?" "You'll be back. Nobody escapes forever." "I hope you find what you were looking for this second time around."

If the PC is a paladin, it's likely they have a god, or a messenger of the god...that could also be a great opportunity. Even complete with "I'm sorry, but you have a job to do. You will not be staying with me this time."

Or you could even do something even more esoteric, and leave them somewhere to wander and ponder their life a bit, somewhere like in an ethereal sparkling cave, or a misty forest glen, or floating in the ocean (able to breathe the water), or on an endless beach of blue sand and purple waves, or standing on the surface of the sun looking back at the planet, or any number of options.

[Rebecca-47]

You mentioned that the dwarf's player struggles a bit with RP, maybe this is the time for them to learn something important in the afterlife, some kind of riddle or important secret that will help the party some time down the line. To give him some action, have him avoid some kind of terrible fate, like the ghosts of humanoids he's killed trying to pull him deeper into hell as revenge.


Thanks for the cool ideas! I do like the idea of the dead drow character getting some sort of vision of the future while he navigates the afterlife. Some sort of forbidden knowledge he brings back with him...

Though to clarify, when I said "It took a long time for his character to feel like he belonged to this world," I was talking about the character, not the player. The player is a seasoned roleplayer. :D

[Trask]

I had a total brain fart and read "Dwarf" instead of Drow...oops.

That gives another option though, maybe he is offered the chance to be reincarnated as a Drider but finds out what a horrible fate that is? If the Drow player wants to go with a route like "I reject the evil of Lolth", assuming you're using that lore or something similar.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Regarding giving the dead character something to do, what about a task or objective that can only be accomplished by the whole party working in tandem - the party on the Material (or whatever) plane and the dead one wherever their spirit is hanging out? Similar to the way a cyberpunk or Shadowrun game might have most of the team infiltrating a site in meatspace while the hacker deals with security in the 'Net.

[Sigreid]

OK, first step is to get a lyre. Second step, find a cave guarded by a massive 3 headed dog. Third step.... Fourth step, profit!

[da newt]

A classic is the party must travel into the realm of the dead to track down the PC's spirit and drag it back to the mortal realm.

With the dead being a paladin (and drow) you have a chance to weave that into the encounter - they get to plead with their god that their mission in the mortal world isn't complete - perhaps a bargain must be struck, or convince a neutral arbiter that they deserve special consideration (a Raven Queen or Charon or ...)

Then you have the whole why would the Qirin (Chinese unicorn like creature, right?) do this for them and what is the cost (for the Qirin personally and for the party to make it worth while). But maybe the resurector is someone more nefarious - maybe a hag or a fiend or a necromancer or ... something where the stakes are high and the morality complicated ...

And of course the PC once resurrected will have been changed by this ordeal, but how ...

This is a great opportunity for all sort of interesting threads. What a gift.

[Ionathus]

OK, first step is to get a lyre. Second step, find a cave guarded by a massive 3 headed dog. Third step.... Fourth step, profit!

Oh, are we leaving right now? Wait for me (https://youtu.be/MWtjGIV1sMQ)!

[Anymage]

How long has it been in-game since the PC died?

Assume that the new temporary druid is either ninth level already, is just on the cusp of ninth level, or for some handwavy reason has some form of the Reincarnation spell already available. Instead of some generic "rare oils and unguents" to get the PC back, say that they need a specific component. The trick here is getting their hands on the thing and then casting the spell during the ten day window in which Reincarnate is still workable. (Minus probably at least one day for whatever they did since the encounter to meet the druid. In fact, having the temporary character be a druid training under the qirin would be a nice way to tie things together while still meaning that the party owes the thing a favor for future quests.) The two main advantages I'm thinking of here is that the party is almost at the level where your average group can already raise their own dead, and that this is a natural way to remind the party that they're on the clock and that they have to think about how they want to spend their time/rests.

Since the player will already be at the table playing their temporary character, their primary character's soul journey is something you should do between sessions between the two of you. Any dice rolling would be unnecessary and you have to be careful how much randomness you'd want to include; if the drow needs to fight off a dark duplicate and his dice go cold, what then? Instead, I'd lean in to the way that reincarnate works. Instead of rolling for the new body, have whatever afterlife functionary (the character's god, a philosophically minded grim reaper, etc.) have a discussion with the character about what they've learned, whether they even want to go back, and if so what they'd want to focus on now. Use those to guide your choice on what sort of new body they'll have, whether a copy of the old one or something completely different.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Have whoever does the dead raising make it an interesting choice. Demand something now AND an unspecified favor in the future.

Make the dead raiser Tony Soprano like. If possible have nearby towns folks tell of a good an an evil act the dead raiser is known for.

The players will talk about their worries and guide you. In general I'd make the favor come up many sessions from now. Then have it be something quesfionable like "kill the new king" who is mildly evil himself.