Need help with atonement quest

[felhanded]

Greeting fellow people.

One of the players in my campaign have grossly violated his god (by killing a sacred stag) and now he seeks atonement for his sin. I've had the idea of sending him off to a quest where can find forgiveness by proving his worth to his god, but i'm completely blank when it comes to ideas about what he/the party should do. The challange should be appropriate for a party of 5 level four adventures. Really hope you can help me out, you seem like the out-of-the-box thinkers :)

A side note, i'm running a complete custom settings which means i've made my own gods, and the god he follows is the god of nature, a bit like Obad-hai but also with an extreme hatred to anything unnatural like abberation, undeads etc.
Also the party consist of the following:
a fourth level wizard
a fourth level rogue
a third level knight/first level favoured soul
a fourth level ranger (the guy who seeks atonement)
and a fourth level troll


Thanks in advance in case of suggestions :)

[Reynard]

Well, it depends how Epic you want the quest to be, and how important the religion is to the character. Since all he's losing out on currently is a first level spell or two, this is mostly up to you.

It could be anything from 'A sacred glade has been defiled by abberations/undead, take this magic doohickey and fix that' which could take two sessions at the most, or it could be a whole new storyline, spanning many sessions as the party hunts down and slays a powerful Necromancer/abberation intent on destroying an entire forest.

[J-H]

How/why did he kill the sacred stag?

[LibraryOgre]

It would somewhat depend on WHY he killed the stag, I agree. I like the idea of forcing him to clean a grove or other sacred space.

Another option would be to require him to raise the stag's successor... i.e. he now has his Animal Companion slot filled, not with a tiger, but with Bambi. He's first got to spend some time finding it (which may lead to a few adventures), and then raise it until it has X HD (including his ranger bonuses).

At first, it will be useless... a thing he has to protect (especially until it's at least 6 weeks old). But it will grow in usefulness, as a celestial stag. At the end of a year (when it's grown), he can either keep his celestial stag animal companion, or release it and get a new one.

[Chilingsworth]

Maybe have the quest repair the transgression?

his could take the form of aquiring a maguffin to ressurect the slain stag, or aiding another, similiar animal give birth to a new stag (either directly, or by getting some other maguffin to ease the birthing process/save the mother's life)?

[Chilingsworth]

It would somewhat depend on WHY he killed the stag, I agree. I like the idea of forcing him to clean a grove or other sacred space.

Another option would be to require him to raise the stag's successor... i.e. he now has his Animal Companion slot filled, not with a tiger, but with Bambi. He's first got to spend some time finding it (which may lead to a few adventures), and then raise it until it has X HD (including his ranger bonuses).

At first, it will be useless... a thing he has to protect (especially until it's at least 6 weeks old). But it will grow in usefulness, as a celestial stag. At the end of a year (when it's grown), he can either keep his celestial stag animal companion, or release it and get a new one.

Ooo. That's a good one!

[LibraryOgre]

Ooo. That's a good one!

Thank you. For me, personal quests like this should a) inconvenience the character b) not become the focus of the game. This means he gets a lousy animal companion for a while (assuming this is a 3.5ish game, and that is relevant), but with good RP, he can get a good one as a bonus.

[Chilingsworth]

What would the stats on a celestial stag be, anyway? The SRD seems to be unfortunately lacking in deer-like animals.

[LibraryOgre]

What would the stats on a celestial stag be, anyway? The SRD seems to be unfortunately lacking in deer-like animals.

Pathfinder has some. Add Celestial template. Lacking that, call it a pony and give it a gore attack.

[navar100]

It would somewhat depend on WHY he killed the stag, I agree. I like the idea of forcing him to clean a grove or other sacred space.

Another option would be to require him to raise the stag's successor... i.e. he now has his Animal Companion slot filled, not with a tiger, but with Bambi. He's first got to spend some time finding it (which may lead to a few adventures), and then raise it until it has X HD (including his ranger bonuses).

At first, it will be useless... a thing he has to protect (especially until it's at least 6 weeks old). But it will grow in usefulness, as a celestial stag. At the end of a year (when it's grown), he can either keep his celestial stag animal companion, or release it and get a new one.

Definitely a good idea. In addition, the only spells he can prepare are any that would protect Bambi.

[LibraryOgre]

Definitely a good idea. In addition, the only spells he can prepare are any that would protect Bambi.

Kinda depends on why he killed Bambi's Mom.

[felhanded]

How/why did he kill the sacred stag?

I'm not entirely sure, to be honest, my guess will be pure idiocy or ignoreance

[felhanded]

It would somewhat depend on WHY he killed the stag, I agree. I like the idea of forcing him to clean a grove or other sacred space.

Another option would be to require him to raise the stag's successor... i.e. he now has his Animal Companion slot filled, not with a tiger, but with Bambi. He's first got to spend some time finding it (which may lead to a few adventures), and then raise it until it has X HD (including his ranger bonuses).

At first, it will be useless... a thing he has to protect (especially until it's at least 6 weeks old). But it will grow in usefulness, as a celestial stag. At the end of a year (when it's grown), he can either keep his celestial stag animal companion, or release it and get a new one.

Agree with most, i really like this one