When your players hand you a big juicy plot hook on a silver platter.

[fishyfishyfishy]

In my most recent game session one of my players did something totally unexpected, and not 100% supported by the rules. It was so great that I had to work out something.

The PCs recently defeated an old enemy of theirs in combat. This enemy was a Lich Druid. They managed to track down and retrieve his phylactory as well. This is where the interesting bit happened...The Artificer asked me "can I use my Retain Essence feature to destroy the Phylactory?" "Yes you can" I say. "Cool, I'm going too use the XP to enhance my sword with some new properties" he says.

I talked with him separate from the group and we decided that the soul of the Lich would be imbued in the sword making it an intelligent item with the personality of the Lich. He's excited because it's much more powerful than he hoped for and I'm exited because this just screams for exploration.

Anyone have any similar stories?

[PsyBomb]

First off, that's freaking awesome. Just remember the rules for personality clashes, since the mental ability scores (and therefore the Ego) of the Lich is going to be absurd.

Second, I have been on both ends of the "player-generated plothook item", ranging from a boat made from black dragonbone that an enemy spellcaster Awakened to a magical iPod that I used as a diviniation focus one too many times. (spell said to do "anything sufficiently random" to generate answers, so I loaded the iPod with a ton of random music and would put it on Random then press forward twice and interpret the song that popped up. It started sending random alerts I didn't ask about and joking with me independently after about 8 levels of this use, including cutting to a soundbite of Navi from the Zelda series saying "Hey! Listen!").

[fishyfishyfishy]

Yea the ego score came out to 25.

Tell me more about this ship though!

[Blackhawk748]

I once got a sword called Soul Reaver. I just wanted to get my sword enchanted to plus 1 and to get a Truedeath Crystal. Well my DM likes rolling dice, i have no clue what he rolled but my sword exploded when the mage who was gonna do the enchanting said "Oops". What i got was a "Spectral" longsword that would float in place when i let go of it and no one but me could pick it back up. Oh and the Truedeath crystal was now permanently bonded to it.

Needless to say it turned into a Legacy Weapon.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I once got a sword called Soul Reaver. I just wanted to get my sword enchanted to plus 1 and to get a Truedeath Crystal. Well my DM likes rolling dice, i have no clue what he rolled but my sword exploded when the mage who was gonna do the enchanting said "Oops". What i got was a "Spectral" longsword that would float in place when i let go of it and no one but me could pick it back up. Oh and the Truedeath crystal was now permanently bonded to it.

Needless to say it turned into a Legacy Weapon.

This is the type of stuff you never forget as a player. Which is why I was so eager to let it happen with the Phylactory. At first I was thinking of having him being possessed by the Lich, but then he decided he wanted to enhance his sword so I ran with that.

[Blackhawk748]

This is the type of stuff you never forget as a player. Which is why I was so eager to let it happen with the Phylactory. At first I was thinking of having him being possessed by the Lich, but then he decided he wanted to enhance his sword so I ran with that.

There is gonna be a lot of great dialogue coming up.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IM A SWORD?!?!? NO, NO,NO,NO! I WILL NOT CAST ENTANGLE FOR YOU!!!"

Its gonna be hilarious

[PsyBomb]

Yea the ego score came out to 25.

Tell me more about this ship though!

Small ship made from the skeleton and leather from a flippin' powerful Black Dragon (we were WAY weaker than it, acquired the materials as part of a deal where we provided great assistance in killing it). A couple of adventures later, we put down a Dread Necromancer who used to be its ally, his death-curse Awakened the boat. Tons of accidents started happening on it, anything which was at least partially made from the dragon's Bone or Leather effectively had a botch range of 1-4 on the die (worked like the opposite of weapon crit ranges, if you still made the check it still went other than the 1).

As time went on, we realized that the boat was restructuring itself back more towards the form of the original Dragon, and the process accelerated each time we said the Dragon's name. Eventually, we got strong enough to put it down again. To do so, we ended up having to evacuate the crew (and local area), then said its name repeatedly until it fully reanimated. Tough fight, made possible only by pre-placing bombs and having extensive knowledge of the way it liked to fight. Flip side, it knew US at this point, but it hadn't been gaining experience like we had been.

That time around, we freaking burned the corpse and Disintegrated what was left. Bought one made of Soarwood and did the magical reinforcing ourselves. I was playing a Hexblade for this game, built more to look cool than anything (group asked me to dial back from my usual "I can save everyone from the DM" levels), and died during the fight (ended up getting the first True Rez of the game).

[WeaselGuy]

I was playing an Order of the Bow Initiate a few years back, and one night I was actually the only person (out of like 6) to show up, aside from the DM. Well, since I was the only one there, he decided that I shouldn't leave empty handed, so he prepared an impromptu side quest just for me. I basically received a Sending from a Zen Archer that was imprisoned in the Underdark, and needed help getting free. Since I was the only person within range, it fell to me to help him out. Cue dramatic solo dungeon crawl, with me fighting off Drow and Half-Demons by the boatload. I finally get to the end of this cavern complex, and sure enough, there's this High Elf Cleric of Eilestraee, trying to fight her way free from a Draegloth and a couple Drow Priestesses. We finally manage to finish them all off, but not before she is fatally wounded. With her dying breath, she asks if I will swear to avenge her death, either by destroying all living Drow, or converting them to the cause of good. Obviously I agree, and with my vow she presses her bow into my hands, as her body disappears and (now) my new bow starts to shine. It's basically a Elvencraft Bow of the Wintermoon, but CG with some other nice perks to it. The DM gave me all 3 levels of Ruathar (modified to act like Stoneblessed, letting me qualify for Elf only stuff) and a level of Darkwood Stalker (adapted to be vs Drow instead of Orcs). I think at the beginning of the session, I was a Human Fighter 5/OBI 1, and ended at level 10, but it was fine, because I was actually behind the power curve starting out.

[SangoProduction]

I don't have anything near the scale of what you guys have. Your stories sound very interesting (not sarcasm). But, the nearest thing I have come to is with my latest character, where I and the GM just kept playing plot-tennis with an item.
It started off as nothing special - a nonmagical (though glamorously engraved) ring, the final token of his mother, the queen, before being banished - we didn't even place a gold value on it (he wouldn't sell it regardless). Then, we had to banish one of the party to a realm where no magic exists that was a prison for a witch that we would need to assist us to contact the elves (essentially god-like beings in this campaign).
Problem was, there was no way we could figure out to bring back both the party member, and the witch, as we only had an item that would bring one of us back. So, for that session, and the 2 week period between the session where we decided we were going to do this, we were discussing what we'd do rather in depth. It came down to 2 volunteers from the party, and eventually the dwarf said his life wasn't as valuable as our paladin's, and he should go. My character snapped, and said the dwarf wasn't going, and gave our paladin his ring and his blessing for the banishment. Well, turned out, that when all was said and done, the completely non magical ring acted as a secondary focus for this returning mechanism, allowing our paladin to return with the witch (although he lost a finger in the whole ordeal).
And so it began. He showed a picture of the realm, which seemed poorly-lit, shadowy, some might say. And I was planning on taking the shadow dancer class (yes, yes, this wasn't a tier 1 game). Well, shadow dancer isn't magical. This ring isn't magical, and reacted in a shadow-realm. As part of the fluff, I explained the shadow abilities as parts of the shadow realm that bond to physical shadows, which were wrought upon this world from the ring.
(And the game is still ongoing, could get more interesting with more bounces.)

[Blackhawk748]

Good Stuff

That sounds really cool actually. The "completely mundane item" trope, lots of fun there.

[Alikat]

Sentient items are the best. A couple campaigns ago my group ended up in possession of a pair of extremely ego-ful items ensorcelled with the personalities of the Lord and Lady who ruled over the long decrepit castle we were dungeon crawling. The King was a dagger and the Queen a chalice. In an attempt to make her husband jealous the Queen attempted to seduced our dashing paladin. A series of unlucky diplomacy, bluff and sense motive rolls later and our paladin is on the verge of falling after engaging in a number of inappropriate cup-related activities that left him looking mortified.

[SangoProduction]

Sentient items are the best. A couple campaigns ago my group ended up in possession of a pair of extremely ego-ful items ensorcelled with the personalities of the Lord and Lady who ruled over the long decrepit castle we were dungeon crawling. The King was a dagger and the Queen a chalice. In an attempt to make her husband jealous the Queen attempted to seduced our dashing paladin. A series of unlucky diplomacy, bluff and sense motive rolls later and our paladin is on the verge of falling after engaging in a number of inappropriate cup-related activities that left him looking mortified.

LoL. Funny, but he wouldn't fall because it was compulsion.

[fishyfishyfishy]

There is gonna be a lot of great dialogue coming up.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IM A SWORD?!?!? NO, NO,NO,NO! I WILL NOT CAST ENTANGLE FOR YOU!!!"

Its gonna be hilarious

Oh yes I imagine it will be

::SNIP::

That sounds like it was super fun! I, as a DM, would have tried to make it seem like a haunting or something similar to keep it going as long as possible.

I was playing an Order of the Bow Initiate a few years back, and one night I was actually the only person (out of like 6) to show up, aside from the DM. Well, since I was the only one there, he decided that I shouldn't leave empty handed, so he prepared an impromptu side quest just for me. I basically received a Sending from a Zen Archer that was imprisoned in the Underdark, and needed help getting free. Since I was the only person within range, it fell to me to help him out. Cue dramatic solo dungeon crawl, with me fighting off Drow and Half-Demons by the boatload. I finally get to the end of this cavern complex, and sure enough, there's this High Elf Cleric of Eilestraee, trying to fight her way free from a Draegloth and a couple Drow Priestesses. We finally manage to finish them all off, but not before she is fatally wounded. With her dying breath, she asks if I will swear to avenge her death, either by destroying all living Drow, or converting them to the cause of good. Obviously I agree, and with my vow she presses her bow into my hands, as her body disappears and (now) my new bow starts to shine. It's basically a Elvencraft Bow of the Wintermoon, but CG with some other nice perks to it. The DM gave me all 3 levels of Ruathar (modified to act like Stoneblessed, letting me qualify for Elf only stuff) and a level of Darkwood Stalker (adapted to be vs Drow instead of Orcs). I think at the beginning of the session, I was a Human Fighter 5/OBI 1, and ended at level 10, but it was fine, because I was actually behind the power curve starting out.

Custom items can be very entertaining. And kudos to your DM for giving you something fun to do since the rest of your group bailed. I have a low tolerance for that sort of thing and it can lead to players being permanently booted from a game. We all take time out of our busy lives to game together, you could at least give warning when you can't show up!

Sentient items are the best. A couple campaigns ago my group ended up in possession of a pair of extremely ego-ful items ensorcelled with the personalities of the Lord and Lady who ruled over the long decrepit castle we were dungeon crawling. The King was a dagger and the Queen a chalice. In an attempt to make her husband jealous the Queen attempted to seduced our dashing paladin. A series of unlucky diplomacy, bluff and sense motive rolls later and our paladin is on the verge of falling after engaging in a number of inappropriate cup-related activities that left him looking mortified.

I hope that any remarks about falling from grace that came from your DM were entirely in jest. It's pretty unfair to do something like that to a player and then punish them for it. Still sounds like fun though!

[redzimmer]

My group was in the middle of a battle on a sinking ship, where the foes were trying to retrieve the black dracolich phylactery the group had fought long and hard to find.

In-game an oracle told them only a blessed weapon could destroy the phylactery, so the VoP monk punched it until it broke. Sadly he did not make it out of the ship in time, but the phylactery was destroyed.

Or was it...?

Three months later in game time the same monk appeared, only now with the supernatural abilities of a black dragon with equivalent HD, including but not limited to water breathing at will, and adding the draconic template to him.

However there was one catch: He was now a living phylactery, and a cult loyal to the dracolich was trying to get him near a dragon corpse or kill him with a trap the soul.

Yeah, in hindsight it does sound a bit like he was Voldemort's last horcrux. But great fun at the time.

...I promised no more black dragons after that campaign.

[redzimmer]

Sentient items are the best. A couple campaigns ago my group ended up in possession of a pair of extremely ego-ful items ensorcelled with the personalities of the Lord and Lady who ruled over the long decrepit castle we were dungeon crawling. The King was a dagger and the Queen a chalice. In an attempt to make her husband jealous the Queen attempted to seduced our dashing paladin. A series of unlucky diplomacy, bluff and sense motive rolls later and our paladin is on the verge of falling after engaging in a number of inappropriate cup-related activities that left him looking mortified.

Sounds like a plot in an oglaf comic...

[SangoProduction]

My group was in the middle of a battle on a sinking ship, where the foes were trying to retrieve the black dracolich phylactery the group had fought long and hard to find.

In-game an oracle told them only a blessed weapon could destroy the phylactery, so the VoP monk punched it until it broke. Sadly he did not make it out of the ship in time, but the phylactery was destroyed.

Or was it...?

Three months later in game time the same monk appeared, only now with the supernatural abilities of a black dragon with equivalent HD, including but not limited to water breathing at will, and adding the draconic template to him.

However there was one catch: He was now a living phylactery, and a cult loyal to the dracolich was trying to get him near a dragon corpse or kill him with a trap the soul.

Yeah, in hindsight it does sound a bit like he was Voldemort's last horcrux. But great fun at the time.

...I promised no more black dragons after that campaign.

Vow of Peace ... punched it until it broke
lol how self-contradictory. oops, vow of poverty makes more sense lol

Aside from that (which was funny), it sounds like a really cool way to have a character die heroically, but also make it tie into the later story.

[oball]

The first session I played in my current campaign, I helped the party kill a Razmiran agent who was tracking them - in backstory he had been the best friend of one of the party members, but turned traitor while they were both fighting to free their homeland from the grasp of Razmir. A few sessions later we got gifted control of a clay golem (the party had dropped to two members at this point, so this was to help us out) and the other party member suggested we name him Andrey, after his dead once-friend.

Some shenanigans on the Plane of Fire later, we performed a service for an Efreet, who granted us some wishes, including one we could make on behalf of Andrey the golem. We wished to have him upgraded from clay to Living Brass - a metal worked by the Azer, and imbued with souls to grant it uncanny powers. We talked with the DM OOC, and decided that the efreet, with the twisted irony common to them, would bind the soul of the dead Andrey into the golem. This currently has had no effect, and IC we have no idea it even happened. However, while the living brass golem is essentially an iron golem for mechanics purposes, he has retained the "Berserk" feature of the clay golem:

When a clay golem enters combat, there is a cumulative 1% chance each round that its elemental spirit breaks free and the golem goes berserk. This chance resets to 0% after one minute of inactivity. A berserk golem attacks the nearest living creature or smashes some object smaller than itself if no creature is within reach. Once it goes berserk, no known method can reestablish control.

He hasn't gone berserk yet, but if he ever does, I have the feeling it won't be a random frenzy, but will rather be targeted very precisely...

[WeaselGuy]

Vow of Peace ... punched it until it broke
lol how self-contradictory.

Aside from that (which was funny), it sounds like a really cool way to have a character die heroically, but also make it tie into the later story.

As far as I know, VoP is more commonly an acronym for Vow of Poverty, and less so for Vow of Peace.

[Kid Jake]

Probably my favorite hand delivered plot hook was in my Pathfinder game when a player introduced a ghoul PC and then in record time proceeded to bite about a dozen people during a frenzied brawl. Fast forward a week or so and suddenly their prosperous neighboring town has been replaced by a nest of ghouls and everything/everybody is on fire/being eaten.

The game quickly changed from empire building to desperate survival in the span of a session.

[WeaselGuy]

Probably my favorite hand delivered plot hook was in my Pathfinder game when a player introduced a ghoul PC and then in record time proceeded to bite about a dozen people during a frenzied brawl. Fast forward a week or so and suddenly their prosperous neighboring town has been replaced by a nest of ghouls and everything/everybody is on fire/being eaten.

The game quickly changed from empire building to desperate survival in the span of a session.

So that's how The Walking Dead started...

[Kid Jake]

So that's how The Walking Dead started...

The guy started a similar apocalyptic scenario with their locathah allies. At one point the other PC was just considering catapulting him into their enemy's capital city and letting his bite happy personality win the war for them.


Of course the other guy's given me some decent fodder too. He made three deals with three different devils in about as many breaths. I haven't even finished figuring up all the ways they could come back and bite him in the ass yet.

[WeaselGuy]

The guy started a similar apocalyptic scenario with their locathah allies. At one point the other PC was just considering catapulting him into their enemy's capital city and letting his bite happy personality win the war for them.


Of course the other guy's given me some decent fodder too. He made three deals with three different devils in about as many breaths. I haven't even finished figuring up all the ways they could come back and bite him in the ass yet.

Insert evil maniacal laugh here.

Totally going to write up a BBEG who's modus operandi consists of launching ghouls and wights into population centers...

[atemu1234]

Yea the ego score came out to 25.

Tell me more about this ship though!

Well, it sounds like their differing opinioms will be fun to handle.