My players are stoned, what do I do?

[dropbear8mybaby]

Petrified. PETRIFIED. Geez people, grass on the mind I swear.

So two of the characters in the party are stoners. The problem here is that their means of transportation is now unavailable (due to the character having a teleportation device being stoned which means the teleportation device in his pocket is now stone also). So now the other three party members are trapped on a small island ruled by fomorians and a leShay queen. They also can't travel by boat off the island because Umberlee is pissed at them and will take her vengeance out on them if they step anywhere near the sea.

This means our next session will be about the remaining three players finding a way to unstone the stoners. Even this is problematic because who are they going to turn to? I mean, I have some ideas but due to previous sessions establishing various themes and the information they've gathered about the situation here, they really don't have many realistic options. They can't go to the druids because they're all either dead, corrupted, or on the side of the bad guy, there aren't any humans they can go to because the island is dominated by giants controlled by a frigging fey queen (leShay, super powerful immortals and one of the creator races of Faerun), and they can't even leave the island.

It's... hrm. I'm genuinely in a quandry of what to do. It seems kinda silly to just have an easy solution that I concoct for them as opposed to them figuring it out, but at the same time, they really don't have any means to solve it given the situation they're in.

[kraftcheese]

My first question is "how did they get petrified?" Just for some background; was it a creature, a trap, an enemy wizard, etc?

[Rhaegar14]

Without much knowledge of the nature of the island, maybe there's some mystical pool somewhere on the island (viciously guarded by the queen's forces) that can magically cure ailments, such as petrification?

[dropbear8mybaby]

My first question is "how did they get petrified?" Just for some background; was it a creature, a trap, an enemy wizard, etc?

Medusa. Dead.

Without much knowledge of the nature of the island, maybe there's some mystical pool somewhere on the island (viciously guarded by the queen's forces) that can magically cure ailments, such as petrification?

They travelled via the Moonwell to Oman's Isle. They had a Moon Seed to travel via the Moonwell to another island. Only chosen of the Earthmother or those with a Moon Seed can use the Moonwells to teleport to another Moonwell. The Moon Seed was in the pocket of one of the characters that got petrified.

[Rhaegar14]

They travelled via the Moonwell to Oman's Isle. They had a Moon Seed to travel via the Moonwell to another island. Only chosen of the Earthmother or those with a Moon Seed can use the Moonwells to teleport to another Moonwell. The Moon Seed was in the pocket of one of the characters that got petrified.

Are we in Azeroth? I feel like we're in Azeroth.

Anyway, none of that seems to make my idea unusable.

[Vinyadan]

Bathe them in the Medusa's blood to turn stone to flesh.

I think it's better if you are quick and straightforward with this one, from my point of view the problem here isn't that two players are stoned, but that there are two players who may be left out of the game until other players have completed a side quest. Have them find a book or graffiti with the AntiStone 101 explanations.

[dropbear8mybaby]

Are we in Azeroth? I feel like we're in Azeroth.

You do know that everything Blizzard has ever done has been stolen from D&D, right?

Anyway, none of that seems to make my idea unusable.

The Moonwells don't do that.

Bathe them in the Medusa's blood to turn stone to flesh.

I think it's better if you are quick and straightforward with this one, from my point of view the problem here isn't that two players are stoned, but that there are two players who may be left out of the game until other players have completed a side quest. Have them find a book or graffiti with the AntiStone 101 explanations.

What's the point then of having any threats in the game?

[kraftcheese]

I guess maybe someone mounted an expedition to the island in the past and got shipwrecked; luckily for your players, they were aware of the medusae on the island, and packed some potions of...uh...Stone to Flesh? Maybe the sailors survived the crash but died somewhere else on the island, and your players could follow their trail.

Maybe the fey magic overflow on the island raises mortals that die there as ghosts, and one steps forward when it sees your adventurers are in trouble; offering help with a cure (but they've gotta do something for it first). Could be a nature spirit if you don't want ghosts.

And I suppose you could do a game to solve this with just the two not-stoned players; then start the next one as your players de-stone the petrified ones.

[Rhaegar14]

You do know that everything Blizzard has ever done has been stolen from D&D, right?

"Stolen" is a strong/aggressive word given that D&D is the grandfather of the entire Fantasy genre in videogames. Still, no, I did not know that the SPECIFIC names "Moonwell" and "Earth-mother" were from D&D. Today I learned.

The Moonwells don't do that.

When did I say the Moonwells did that? What do Moonwells have to do with the Pond of Rejuvenation?

I also like kraftcheese's ghost idea. You could combine it with the sailor idea, frankly.

[Vinyadan]

What's the point then of having any threats in the game?

What's the point of having five players at the table, if you won't let two of them play?

[Berenger]

You do know that everything Blizzard has ever done has been stolen from D&D, right?

Hey, that's not fair! StarCraft is basically Warhammer 40,000 with the serial numbers filed off...

[Mastikator]

Making new characters is a great opportunity to try out that new character concept you've been thinking about.

[TeChameleon]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is there any actual reason a 'Moon Seed' can't have been made of stone to begin with? I don't know the lore here, but my first instinct is that it would be some kind of rock anyhow, since, y'know, moon = really big rock. Failing that, just rule that the Medusa's magics can't overcome the magic of the moonwells, and all they have to do is hold onto the statue with the seed in its pocket, hop into the moonwell, and they can *bzort* out of there and go find someone with remove curse or stone to flesh or whatever.

[Quertus]

from my point of view the problem here isn't that two players are stoned, but that there are two players who may be left out of the game until other players have completed a side quest.

Making new characters is a great opportunity to try out that new character concept you've been thinking about.

For bonus points, have one of the new characters know resurgence. Problem solved.

[dropbear8mybaby]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but is there any actual reason a 'Moon Seed' can't have been made of stone to begin with? I don't know the lore here, but my first instinct is that it would be some kind of rock anyhow, since, y'know, moon = really big rock.

It's a white acorn, a gift from the Earthmother to her most faithful.

Failing that, just rule that the Medusa's magics can't overcome the magic of the moonwells, and all they have to do is hold onto the statue with the seed in its pocket, hop into the moonwell, and they can *bzort* out of there and go find someone with remove curse or stone to flesh or whatever.

I've already decided that if the statue of the player with the Moon Seed in their pocket is immersed and the words spoken to activate it, that it will work to teleport them to the other Moonwell. The problem is that they have no ****ing idea that this will work and short of coming up with the idea themselves, no way to know that without me deus ex machinaring it, which I'm not going to do because I find that abhorrent as both a player and a DM.

[malachi]

You mentioned that there are druids on the island who are allied with the bad guys, or otherwise corrupted. What stops the players from beating them up / threatening one of them to un-stone the two stoned guys?

[dropbear8mybaby]

You mentioned that there are druids on the island who are allied with the bad guys, or otherwise corrupted. What stops the players from beating them up / threatening one of them to un-stone the two stoned guys?

None on this island. I was mainly mentioning it because they're a major part of the Moonshae Isle lore so wanted to ensure people who were familiar with that lore that they weren't an option. Besides that, they'd have to be 9th-level or higher to cast greater restoration and that places them at too high a level in the druidic hierarchy to be present on this isle, let alone facing (or having any reason to face them) the PC's.

There's a complex weave of story behind all of this that's too much to go into here unfortunately but there are numerous factors which make pretty much everything I can think of not a viable option without making it DM fiat.

[Melville's Book]

Well, in that case, it may be worth considering that even if we give you a solution, your own DMing philosophy would prevent you from providing it to your players.

So either wait for them to pull out something creative you weren't expecting (and definitely make that "Moon Seed could still work" thing possible to learn through Knowledge check) or ask yourself which is more important to you between avoiding some DM fiat and outright removing your players from the game for an indefinite period. Maybe give them some allied NPCs to run in the interim? Whatever works to keep them involved somehow if you can't at all bring yourself to just save their characters (or call it like it is and let them roll entirely new ones). I can guarantee that if you just told me not to play at all for four sessions until the stone business was resolved, I might not be eager to come back even when rejoining the game was an option again.

[lytokk]

I guess maybe someone mounted an expedition to the island in the past and got shipwrecked; luckily for your players, they were aware of the medusae on the island, and packed some potions of...uh...Stone to Flesh? Maybe the sailors survived the crash but died somewhere else on the island, and your players could follow their trail.

I'm going to go ahead and +1 this. If theres a medusa on the island its likely that someone at some point came before them to slay the creature, and the expedition would have been outfitted to combat it. The surviving players just need to find it. The trick is though, finding something for the petrified players to do while the rest of the party looks for the remains of the expedition team. Or alternatively, let them find a giant in who's cave is the supplies left by the expedition after he obliterated them. If you plan on it taking a whole session, perhaps have the new players roll out some throwaway characters who were shipwrecked on the island and have gone a little bit feral dealing with the inhabitants of the island. I don't know what game or edition you're playing so I can't figure out too much detail, but have them keep the classes basic, like barbarian or ranger. Frostburn has some rules for primitive weapons, which is about all they'd have anyway. Assuming the game is 3.5

[Segev]

What is the usual transportation means that is now part of a petrified statue?

[icefractal]

How hostile is the LeShay? Because those things have Freedom usable at will. I doubt a creature like that would give anything away for free, but given that it's a trivial effort on her part (one standard action), it might not be too big of a favor required.

Also, they should probably get a Knowledge check on the Moon Seed still being usable, that doesn't seem like something that would never have occurred before.

[ExLibrisMortis]

If you don't want to make de-stoning trivial, you can provide a stop-gap solution. Maybe an alchemical solution, based on medusa blood, as suggested above. Bathe the statue in (expensive) solution #1 until it goes soft, then administer (cheap) solution #2 orally, which temporarily reverses the stoning. If you don't take your regular doses, you're back to stone, and you need more #1.

The main problem here is fatigue: if you need to take one dose per hour, you can't really sleep (you can rest, though).

[Inevitability]

Basilisk stomach acid traditionally has the power to reverse petrification.

[Thrudd]

Sucks to be them. Let the stoned guys play as some NPCs or henchmen who get hired on while the others travel around looking for a way to reverse the petrification.
But first, offer both of them the option of just rolling up new characters to join the party, in case the petrified guys aren't saved or the other characters don't want to bother saving them. I mean, at this point it's really up to the survivors what happens to those guys.

To undo petrification there's the stone to flesh spell. Go in search of a wizard who knows it.
There's also Wish.
Or you can create all manner of magic items, a magic ointment to unpetrify or anything you want: they can find a sage that knows of a way to do it and where the item might be, they go on a quest to get it.

Or let them bring in new characters and continue play as normal until such time as they happen to find a way to unpetrify, at which time they might go back to where the statues are and free those guys, who could become NPCs or the replacements could become NPCs, whatever the players want.

If they can't leave the island, I guess you can have the replacement characters be guys that happened to be lost or imprisoned there: the classic way to introduce a new character in the middle of the dungeon.

[dropbear8mybaby]

Basilisk stomach acid traditionally has the power to reverse petrification.

Some alchemists are said to know how to process the basilisk's gullet and the fluids contained within. Properly handled, the gullet produces an oil that can return petrified creatures to flesh and life.

Hah! I did not know that. The medusa has a somewhat complex history but she travelled with a menagerie of exotic pets, one of which was a basilisk that the PC's killed in the same fight.

Unfortunately this suffers from the same issue as immersing the Moon Seed: the conveyance of that information to the players. But thanks, that's a nice bit of information to have to add to the possibilities.

[Thrudd]

Another option: that whole party is on-hold because they're stuck and can't get off the island. Whoever sent them there realizes or suspects this, and drafts a new party to go looking for them. Everyone rolls up new characters for the rescue party and goes after them. Maybe a message even got out somehow, via sending or magic raven or whatever that the seed is petrified and they need a spell asap. The rescue party goes out with potion/ item/scroll in hand, and you follow their adventure for a while. When the two parties unite, you can go hardcore and kill some mofos until everyone only has one character left, or let them choose some to become NPCs.

[RazorChain]

So in essence you put a monster on the island that was likely to turn PC's into stone and no way to un-petrify them.

Solution: Put thing on the island to turn the PC's back to normal.

[MrStabby]

Well simply dropping a book on the path in front of them with instructions on how to reverse the effect is an awkward Deus Ex that wont sit right. I can respect that. But what if a character knew all along? Let them roll an Int check first (possibly knowledge nature or something else, depending on the remedy) to see what lore they might be able to recall.

A good roll means you can tell them how without the awkwardness - they had already known.

Of course if they roll... poorly, then you may still need a plan B, but as a plan A it costs nothing and may help dodge the issue.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Backroads and crossroads; MoF 44.

Local folklore could lead them to one that gets them off of the island and opens up a lot of options for seeking outside assistance. You could get this info to them by simply calling for an appropriate knowledge check; either local, nature, or perhaps the planes or by having a local they approach for assistance mention them in passing. You -can- give them this tip without it being obvious that's what you're doing. It's okay to give them some -subtle- assistance in situations like this where there's nothing that's likely to occur to them without it.

[Katrina]

Well, the way I see it, you have two solutions. The choice of which solution comes down to what I would call are you a "hard" GM or a "Soft" GM. A Hard GM focuses on the game aspects of RPGs and seeks to make things challenging for his players. Note that this is not a criticism of this style of play, as I know many players who actually enjoy the challenging, almost adversarial style of game. If your group is one that likes that style of play, then more power to you and them. A soft Gm focuses more on the concept of story and plot and less on making the "game" challenging. Roleplay trumps rules in this style of play. Decide which one you lean toward, and you've got the answer.

Hard GM solution: Well, if the PCs were high enough CR to end up facing a Medusa, they really should have planned for it by having anti-petrification or save boosting magic. Make the people who were petrified roll characters as if they had died, probably at the Cohort level for this particular situation. Then, if they manage to unstone themselves, they get to play their old higher level characters and the temp character becomes a cohort, who will leave at the end of this adventure unless they take Leadership or something.

Soft GM solution: Common (in my experience) GM advice is place something that can cure conditions near something that causes conditions. Example: Keoghtm's Ointment (I believe that can cure Petrified), Scroll of Stone to Flesh, etc. near the Medusa in planning sessions. There is a reason that the Ice sword is usually found in the Fire Temple or what have you in video games. If it seems contrived and they fuss too much, then say the Earthmother (or whoever their Patron Deity is) was looking out for them. Alternately, the Cleric (provided he isn't stoned) could possibly receive this as a one time bonus to aid them in their darkest hour. I always believe the gods aren't really doing a lot to help the average adventuring party anyway.