this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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DMs, help needed! (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/dnd
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If you are a member of Blackmoore's Inquisitorial Guild, stop reading.

I don't think any of my players are on Lemmy, but better safe than sorry.

A couple sessions ago, my Dwarf Fighter drew a weapon on a member of the administrative staff of a very prominent magic school. The school is a part of an overarching guild of magi who have branches in all the major cities, and are treated as their own sovereign body. Largely, offenses against the magi are dealt with by the magi, and the state doesn't get involved.

Unfortunately for the dwarf, this staff member has a kind of... Umbridge-esque relationship with discipline. The player has been placed in a magical dream-state to "learn his lesson," the lesson being "I will not incite violence within the school." His guild mates have devised a plan to get him out... by convincing the staff to let them join him in the dream.

His punishment is to face off against a goliath of a man in a colosseum, fighting for his life. If he dies, he wakes up by the colosseum entrance for processing, to be brought back in for the next fight.

The monstrosity he is fighting cannot die, but if brought to 0 enters a sort of stasis where he regains his health slowly, allowing for planning time. Or time to run! He is powered by a crystallized shard of a dead god's soul that the mages are using as a source of nearly infinite magical energy. This is an object of interest for the party.

My struggle here is in thinking of an engaging way for them to acquire said gem and shut down the dream from the inside. Any ideas?

The gem does not have to be physically on the jailer. The solution does not have to involve heavy combat, but it is a welcome addition. The Human Fighter loves a good slog-fest.

Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks in advance for any help!

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[–] tidy_frog 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Because its a piece of a dead god the crystal exists in both the dream and the real world simultaneously. This means one of two things:

  1. They have to steal the crystal in both the dream and the real world at the same time if they wish to abscond with it.
  2. Stealing the crystal in the real world becomes a lot easier if they steal it out of the dream first because, like Freddy Kruger, if you have the crystal in your possession when you wake from the dream it will be in your possession in the real world allowing you to bypass all that real-world security (the magi haven't figured that technicality out yet).

Getting the fighter out of the dream, or into a state in the dream where he can then proceed to escape with the crystal involves finally killing the invincible goliath in the dream, which cannot be done alone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like this plan! It's right along with what I was thinking already, and plays well with themes already introduced to the party about the dead god. Any ideas about how they might go about getting the crystal from within the dream world?

[–] IanM32 4 points 1 year ago

Maybe some Inception-like dreams within dreams, providing a way for the characters to gain control over the dream world (another technicality the magi didn't expect, maybe because in their arrogance, they didn't think anyone could do it).

[–] Candelestine 2 points 1 year ago

Serious Persona 5 vibes here. Love it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could you do an Edge of Tomorrow/Groundhog Day thing?

Maybe every time the party fails, they restart the encounter, but the bad boy makes the same mistake. Or shows a weakness that they can exploit on the next pass.

Or they get to carry something between restarts (a la Cookie Monster), that they need to trade up to get the god shard.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Hmm an interesting proposition. I'll have to think that over. Thanks for the rest!

[–] rolaulten 1 points 1 year ago

Ok. This seems like an ideal situation for illusions, with a side of illusions.

If the party saw the dwarf's sleeping body. Illusions. Interacted with it? Illusions (hell do dm flat if they have some flavor of telepathy and 'talked' to the dwarf). The real dwarf is in a small black box in the basement interacting with a magical holodeck.

The combat area? Illusions. The reason the Goliath can't die? It's not real.

Powering all this is a item of near limitless magical power. But the implementation is poorly understood/flawed. So sure it can power unbreakable illusions for one person, but adding the rest of the party introduces "bugs" to the pre- programmed illusions. At this point you are left with the party escaping a ' universe' where everything is real, and nothing is. If you want to really mess with the party put the crystal just a few feet away in real space - but remember, to take those steps they need to find a way out of the illusions.

[–] Redsven 1 points 1 year ago

I'm running a bit where my party is trying to kill a god, its not quite absconding with their soul, but kind of the same?

Anyway, I told them they have to preform a ritual to un-diefy her body, she's not inhabiting it right now and they actually already stole it. To complete the ritual I told them they had to collect 3 divine conduits, you're looking to contain a soul, so maybe divine vessels or batteries or something. But I let them chose, either 3 that represent her connection to the domains she has power in or three that oppose them. The three that align with the god would send them searching through the lore of the God to learn what artifacts would represent her connection to those domains, the 3 that oppose them send them searching into the lore of her enemies.

Either way, you're preparing 3 "dungeons" and getting to go into some fun world building and lore without just casting exposition.